Dear FBC Dallas, (Version 2)

Ok, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this post. I've been thinking about my criticism of this church's plan to spend 120M on a building. My buddy KJ and I had a long talk this afternoon about this post, and the question he asked me to ask my self was this: "What good, if any, does criticizing this church's plan do?"

It's a good question. A sucky question for me to saddle up to, but a good one.

The thing is, I lean both ways on the subject. Here's my pro and con list about this post:

Pros:
-It's important to keep some prespective. Sometimes we lose site of how rich we are.
-Jesus' and Scripture are clear in our obligation to be selfless servants - always helping those in need. I was having a hard time seeing how this campaign was doing that.
-Scripture should not be used out of context.

Cons:
-I'm making some big assumptions - litterally or subconsciencisly
-I make no mention, or even attempt to find out what good will come from such a structure.
-I have no idea what kind of other moneys this church is spending to help those in need.

Both lists are valid.

Now, mom said, "If you don't have anything good to say, then don't say anything at all." But, she also said, "You should always take a stand for the things that you believe in." So where's the line? I believe the line is drawn in tact.

Let's face it, criticisim will get us no where if it's not shared in love. So, for you're veiwing pleasure, I have re-wrote this blog post the way it should have been, had I'd been as wise as my friend KJ.

A color coded key so you can see the differences:
(white) what i wrote origianlly wrote
(yellow) what I have added
(red) ***original items that should have never been in there.***
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear FBC Dallas,

***Don't.***
Really?

Here are the facts that keep me awake at night:
-----------------------------------------

• Children under age 18 make up 49 percent of the population of the world's least developed countries, compared with 21 percent of the population of the world's industrialized nations.

• More than 2 billion people lack access to electricity and modern forms of energy.

• More than 1 billion (one in five) people live on less than U.S.$1 a day.

• Every day, 1,600 women and more than 10,000 newborns globally die due to complications that could have been prevented.

• The annual world economy breaks down like this:

Low Income, $825 or less: 37%
Lower Middle Income, $826 to $3,255: 38%
Upper Middle Income, $3,256 to $10,065: 9%
High Income, $10,066 or more: 16%

• Approximately 143 million children in the developing world (one in 13) are orphans.

• More than 10 million children under age 5 die each year. Two-thirds of these deaths — more than 6 million deaths every year — are preventable.

Sources: www.unicef.org, www.unep.org, www.one.org, www.who.int, www.freeworldacademy.com, www.nationmaster.com

-------------------------------------
FBC Dallas, I'm having a really hard time understanding how you can decide that this building campaign is a good idea. ***FBC Dallas, please, please, please reconsider,*** and stop using scripture out of context. Does your congregation need this building more than children need food and clean water?

I'm asking my self these questions about the things I have in my life.

I got those facts from Compassion. You should click the link and sponsor some of these children.

***It sure is pretty though, however*** God isn't glorified by buildings. Now I'm certain that you have every good intention in place for these new facilities. And I have no idea what you're church is currently don't to help those in need. I'm just wondering if this is the best way for your congregation to spend such a large chunk of change. I'm praying that you are petitioning the Lord at every single turn about this decision.

A Concerned SBC Church Member,

Taylor Robinson,
Click Here to watch some videos about their new building campaign.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That's better, right?

I was wrong.

Wordpress is better than Blogger.

I'm probably going to move.

I've only made 3 cents in the last 9 months with my Google Adsense account (thanks for not clicking on my links, btw).

Google doesn't even want to compete with WP, they've made that clear.

What's a label? The correct term is tag, Google.

Metatags, get real.

Why can't I change my theme?

What I don't understand is this: WP is set up to work well in the Google internet. Google is king. WP knows it, so they plan accordingly. Why in the Blue Heck doesn't Google make it super easy to play the game they invented? Weird. Who cares?

I was wrong.

Google rules in all other realms, not in the blargosphere.

Any reasons why I shouldn't make the move?

Holla.

Dear First Baptist Dallas,

Ok, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this post. I've been thinking about my criticism of this church's plan to spend 120M on a building. My buddy KJ and I had a long talk this afternoon about this post, and the question he asked me to ask my self was this: "What good, if any, does criticizing this church's plan do?"

It's a good question. A sucky question for me to saddle up to, but a good one.

The thing is, I lean both ways on the subject. Here's my pro and con list about this post:

Pros:
-It's important to keep some prespective. Sometimes we lose site of how rich we are.
-Jesus' and Scripture are clear in our obligation to be selfless servants - always helping those in need. I was having a hard time seeing how this campaign was doing that.
-Scripture should not be used out of context.

Cons:
-I'm making some big assumptions - litterally or subconsciencisly
-I make no mention, or even attempt to find out what good will come from such a structure.
-I have no idea what kind of other moneys this church is spending to help those in need.

Both lists are valid.

Now, mom said, "If you don't have anything good to say, then don't say anything at all." But, she also said, "You should always take a stand for the things that you believe in." So where's the line? I believe the line is drawn in tact.

Let's face it, criticisim will get us no where if it's not shared in love. So, for you're veiwing pleasure, I have re-wrote this blog post the way it should have been, had I'd been as wise as my friend KJ.

A color coded key so you can see the differences:
(white) what i wrote origianlly wrote
(yellow) what I have added
(red) ***original items that should have never been in there.***
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear FBC Dallas,

***Don't.***
Really?

Here are the facts that keep me awake at night:
-----------------------------------------

• Children under age 18 make up 49 percent of the population of the world's least developed countries, compared with 21 percent of the population of the world's industrialized nations.

• More than 2 billion people lack access to electricity and modern forms of energy.

• More than 1 billion (one in five) people live on less than U.S.$1 a day.

• Every day, 1,600 women and more than 10,000 newborns globally die due to complications that could have been prevented.

• The annual world economy breaks down like this:

Low Income, $825 or less: 37%
Lower Middle Income, $826 to $3,255: 38%
Upper Middle Income, $3,256 to $10,065: 9%
High Income, $10,066 or more: 16%

• Approximately 143 million children in the developing world (one in 13) are orphans.

• More than 10 million children under age 5 die each year. Two-thirds of these deaths — more than 6 million deaths every year — are preventable.

Sources: www.unicef.org, www.unep.org, www.one.org, www.who.int, www.freeworldacademy.com, www.nationmaster.com

-------------------------------------
FBC Dallas, I'm having a really hard time understanding how you can decide that this building campaign is a good idea. ***FBC Dallas, please, please, please reconsider,*** and stop using scripture out of context. Does your congregation need this building more than children need food and clean water?

I'm asking my self these questions about the things I have in my life.

I got those facts from Compassion. You should click the link and sponsor some of these children.

***It sure is pretty though, however*** God isn't glorified by buildings. Now I'm certain that you have every good intention in place for these new facilities. And I have no idea what you're church is currently don't to help those in need. I'm just wondering if this is the best way for your congregation to spend such a large chunk of change. I'm praying that you are petitioning the Lord at every single turn about this decision.

A Concerned SBC Church Member,

Taylor Robinson,
Click Here to watch some videos about their new building campaign.

The Men Who Stare at Goats - Movie Review

T5, Josh, and I went to see this tonight. Here's my review:

This movie was ok, almost good, defiantly not great. Mark this one up on the list of comedies that if you see the trailer, you've seen 90% of the funniest parts. The other 10% are the funny parts with cuss words in them. You see.

The performances were good, but what would you expect from this cast. These guys are basically playing beefed up versions of characters they mastered previously. Spacy, the pensive joke waiting in the wings (Superman). Bridges, the hippy drugie (The Big Lebowski). Clooney, the hero with weird ticks (Oh Brother Where Art Thou), and Ewan McGregor, the innocent, bugg eyed co-hero wishing he life was more interesting than it is (Big Fish). All of these actors are better in the films that inspired the casting director to put their names on the poster. More over, all of the previously mentioned films are better than this movie.

There are plenty of "in between the lines" Jedi jokes around Ewan McGregor. I get it, not funny.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are some funny parts to this movie. Really funny, but most of them are centered around drug jokes. I like drug jokes, and most of the time these jokes are always funny, but I feel like the film maker wanted this movie to be a "thinker," and I just caught my self waiting for Cheech and Chong to come out and make their cameos.

The ending is ho-hum and spoon fed to the audience.

Predictable. Entertaining. Less than I expected.

3.5 stars out of 5.

Ok.

I'll probably never watch it again.

What did you think of the movie? of my review?

Steve Martin, Earl Scruggs, Jypsie, and Scott H. Biram

So this past Saturday Tiff and I went to Nashville to see the Steve Martin playing banjo at the Ryman. It was a super sweet awesome time. Here's the Cliff's Notes version of the night.

We got to the Ryman at 7:30 on the nose, just in time to see the opening act start. The opener was some guy who played banjo for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for 40+ years. He was good, but talked way too much. His jokes were not funny, plus he basically spoke with the mic in his mouth so we couldn't understand half the things he was saying.

Then Steve and his band came out. They were great! Steve Martin is an excellent banjo player, and a better song writer. I know you've heard King Tut, but he's got some non-funny songs that will blow you away. Go right now and download his song - "Daddy Played Banjo" and you'll see what I'm saying.

Here's them playing part of "The Orange Blossom Special," the most famous of all blue grass songs:

They were shooting the show for television so you'll get a chance to see it if you keep you're eyes open and you're DVR on. For the encore, they played a song with EARL friggin SCRUGGS! Who's basically the father of modern blue grass. If you lay in bed at night listening to Nicklecreek, you owe Earl Scruggs.

After that, we hit Broadway looking for a nice place to sit and listen to some more music. One of Tiff's favorite bands right now is Jypsi. It's a four person band made up of one brother and his three sisters. They're great, if you're into hippy blue grass country. That's just Tiff's speed. Here's Jypsi playing on some TV show.

So we're sitting there listening to Jypsi, and one of my favorite singer/song writers, Scott H. Biram, comes walking in. You've never heard of him, and he's prob not your style. But I think he's awesome. Tiff gasses me up to go and talk to him, and it didn't take much convincing, so I rolled on over to where he was sitting, and just stuck my hand out and said, "Scott?" He nodded, and I said "My wife Tiffany and I have seen you three times in Birmingham, and we think you're music is great."

That was followed by an hour long talk between the three of us. We talked about where he learned to yodel, the guy he used to tour with named "Joe Buck Yourself." (Which incidentally happened to be the reason he stopped at this place in the first place. Joe Buck was the owner's ex-husband.)

Here's Scott playing one of my favorites:

All in all it was a GREAT music night that neither of us will forget in a long time.