interesting people observation

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working at Liquid Highway (a locally-owned coffee shop).  I’ve noticed some interesting things about people, but especially about how we seem to travel in packs even when we’re completely unaware of it.  It never fails – business will be S-L-O-W (as in no one for an hour) and then all of a sudden there will be three cars in the drive-thru and two people at the counter – and it’s a random time of day.  Then…nothing again.  I’m sure these people don’t call each other to come at the same time nor do they sit in the parking lot waiting for more people to show up.

How many times has this happened to you?  You walk into Target and there is no one at the registers but when you get ready to go and check out, every lane that is open is full.  Why does that happen?  I’m sure there are people much smarter than me who can somehow explain this.  Do they read my blog?  Will they tell us why?

world series

I just realized today the World Series is starting.  I’m not sure I care.  Why?  Pretty simple, actually.  The Red Sox aren’t playing.  Am I that shallow?  Yes.  If they were playing in it, I would know it and would watch it.  But since they aren’t, I now have that time to devote to other things. I’m not bitter – there’s just no need to watch it now.

In light of all that, I will still give my prediction:  Phillies in 6 games (You didn’t think I’d actually pick the Yankees, did you?!)  🙂

random things in blake’s car

This week’s random things found in Blake’s car.  You can find the previous ones here and here.

• One white/red Starter basketball shoe
• Trifle bowl
• Puppy test (I understand she passed!)
• Christmas tree stand
• Columbia sweatshirt

beatbox

Saw this guy at Catalyst.  This is really cool.  He also did live-mixing of songs before the sessions.  I need to find someone like this.  Know anyone?

five octaves

Don’t you wish you could sing five octaves like Shane?  Wow.

incredible moment

This was one of the most incredible moments from the Catalyst conference – actually, it’s one of the most incredible moments I’ve experienced ever.  While it is a little long, it’s well worth it.  If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, start at least at 3:45.   Oh, and get your Kleenex.

If you’d like to know more about Compassion International and how you can make an impact like this, visit their website.

great shot!

There were some cool moments at Catalyst that were very spiritual and deep.  There were also some that weren’t very spiritual but were very cool.  One of those Cliff mentions in this post.  Another was the guys from Dude Perfect.  These students from Texas A&M make some really incredible basketball shots.  But they also are committed to Jesus and are using their hobby to make Him famous and to help kids around the world through a great organization called Compassion International.  This quote is from Dude Perfect’s website:

“Ultimately, Dude Perfect is a group of college guys that follows Jesus.  We didn’t plan on this type of interest in our videos and we’re incredibly grateful.  We want to use this platform for something bigger than us.”

Here are a couple of their videos for you to enjoy:

catalyst

I had the opportunity to go to Atlanta for my first Catalyst Conference last Thursday and Friday.  This conference is two days of jam-packed leadership goodness.  Besides the fun that goes along with hanging out with Cliff, Donny, Blake, and Ben (we’re still searching for what has happened to Rick Moranis), we had the opportunity to hear from some incredible leaders and communicators like Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, Tony Dungy, Chuck Swindoll, Malcolm Gladwell, Dave Ramsey, Matt Chandler, and Rob Bell, among others.

As you can imagine, this much insight from some great leaders and communicators in such a short time frame can be pretty overwhelming.  I am still trying to process everything I heard and the lessons God is teaching me.  Stay tuned and I will share some of them in the days and weeks to come.

Have a great week!

Random Things in Blake’s Car

Top 5 random things in Blake’s car this week:

1. Wedding invitation
2. Water balloon launcher
3. Wrapped yellow pages book
4. 2007 college diploma
5. “I am…somebody” bracelet

What are random things I would find in your car?

exciting stuff

Yesterday at Freedom Fellowship, we unveiled our new logo and website.  It’s been like Christmas around our office the past few weeks with t-shirts and business cards coming in, and showing updates on the website to staff.

We chose Clover to host our site and used one of their templates for the design.  They have been incredible to work with and are a great group of people who understand churches.  If you’re part of a church that needs a new look for your website, I’d highly recommend them.  They are working on a huge upgrade of their services that is going to make our website even better.  I’ll share more about that later.  In the meantime, go check out our new look and website and let me know what you think.