What do you do with a sex offender?

Today we found out that a convicted sex offender moved only about 2 blocks from our house. As a father of two young kids and many more children on my street it troubles me. I'm left perplexed at my options...

Review :: Little Children

RATING :: a fillet mignon with a shot of tequila as a chaser.

How many people say with bated breath, "I wish I could be a kid again" ? How many of us want to throw off the so-called fetters of being an adult and return to the innocence of childhood? Todd Field's latest film "Little Children" explores what happens when adults act like little children.

Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson star as two suburban dwellers longing for something more. With their marriages are on life support and boredom overwhelming them, decisions are made out of desire rather than wisdom. Small indiscretions become a lifestyle of secret lust...waiting for the next encounter.

Jackie Earle Haley, in an Oscar nominated role, plays a pedophile living back in the neighborhood following a stint in jail. His past haunts him like an albatross around his neck with the neighbors watching his every step. Eerily like a situation I find myself in now (I'll write more about that in another posting). We get to see the true consequences of someone who has no boundaries on their sexual temptations.

Overall this film sticks with you...finding yourself relating and then repulsed. Watching seemingly harmless actions become destructive. It reminded me of "American Beauty" without the over-the-top storyline. I highly recommend this film.

Elevation Church

There's a little church in Charlotte, NC. It started a little over 18 months ago and now it's running almost 2000 a weekend! I have been watching these guys carefully trying to cull from them what they do that has created such magnetism and what can we, Four Corners, learn from them.

Steve Furtick, the lead pastor of Elevation, keeps a diligent blog that offers tremendous insight into their staff and church. He recently posted their "Best Practices" and I love his analogies. It's great to see a young church having such tremendous impact and influence.

How to plan a series?

We are working through revamping our process of planning for programming a series at Four Corners. As with a business, we have a keen eye out for who we are aiming for...our key demographic. Creating an experience that not only is "entertaining" to draw people in but also meaningful to invite them to follow Jesus.

The other night, sitting around at TGI Friday's over appetizers and beer, we planned from now until Easter some awesome stuff. We're going to be talking about the character of God, hard questions, what we are about as a church, God's promises, Marriage, our egos, and a whole lot more.

Granger Church offered an inside look at their programming meetings and preparations. Some insightful and useful stuff including videos and actual planning sheets downloads.

Top 50 Marketing + Media Blogs

AdAge published its list of the Top 50 blogs for Marketing and Media. Sadly, I'm not on the list. I think my rank is around 1,257,301...there's always next year.

Church Dropouts

"People are looking for a faith that can change them and to be a part of changing the world."

But is the church the place people go to change the world? It's no secret the church at large is losing people left and right...but the question is why. USA Today has an interesting article about that very subject today.

A place to converse...

I just got back from a lunch with a friend who just wanted to chat about his questions of faith. I felt privileged he asked...

That's why I love this church. It's a place to explore God at your own pace, truly. Churches so often act as if you should be on board 100% with your beliefs and behavior before you can really belong, but it's flipping that very "equation" on it's head that has proven to be a magnet for many at Four Corners. It's a place they can converse about following Christ...doubts and all.

The 4 Focus Points of Four Corners Church

Over the past three years since we planted Four Corners, we have learned volumes. One of the main lessons we learned was simplify what you are about and communicate it clearly so people can, in turn, tell others what differentiates you from the "church" experience or notion they have.

We studied lots of influential churches around the country...North Point, Granger, New Spring, Mars Hill, Willow Creek, Fellowship, Mosaic, NCC, Rock Harbor, etc. What was their focus? How did they express their DNA? Here's what we distilled for our 4 Focus Areas:

Focus 1 :: Live Generously
I will give of my time, energy and money to help others every month.

Focus 2 :: Have a friend, be a friend
I will meet with friends who encourage my relationship with Jesus.

Focus 3 :: Take your next bold step
I will boldly take steps to develop my relationship with Jesus.

Focus 4 :: Invest and invite
I will invest in others and successfully invite someone to a weekend service or event.

Living Generously :: Backpacks

Living Generously is one of the main focuses of Four Corners. This past Sunday over 125 backpacks were loaded with school supplies for local elementary school kids and their families. It was a sight to see...people living generously because that's what Christ followers do.

Top 10 film directors working today

I love movies. I watch them all the time...over 2300 are rated by me on my Netflix account. So I thought I would compile a little list of my favorite directors working today:

1. David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, The Game)
2. Terrance Malick (Thin Red Line, New World, Badlands)
3. Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Princess and the Warrior, Perfume)
4. Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Blackhawk Down, Bladerunner)
5. Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, United 93, Bourne Ultimatum)
6. Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws)
7. Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige)
8. Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, Heavenly Creatures, Bad Taste)
9. Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets, Good Fellas, The Departed)
10. Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Pi)

Honorable Mention (or ones I forgot) :: Wes Anderson, Michael Mann, PT Anderson, Coen Bros, Bryan Singer, Steven Soderburg, Francis Ford Coppola

Greatest Gadget of All Time

What do you think is the greatest gadget of all time? Vote on WIRED's tournament to put them head-to-head. It is amazing...we voted the sextant as the best gadget of all time, beating out the television by a hare.

Tumblr...a hub for your web presence

My buddy Paul pointed me to this little web site well worth a visit if you post on multiple places such as Flickr, a blog, Twitter, and Last.fm. Tumblr helps have a one-stop shop for all those sources so people can visit one spot to see your web presence. Four Corners is in the process of launching its own Tumblr.