Full Contact Baptism

A few weeks ago we had a big baptism service at Northwoods.  Since I am on the pastoral staff team I get to be part of the team that does the baptisms (in the lake in the summer, or this time THANKFULY inside!)  During our weekend services, over 115 people were baptized, it was a really cool weekend. 

I baptized several people in each of the services but one individual was most ‘memorable’. 

This particularly ‘memorable’ baptism made me think back to my practical ministry class in college where we all went to the pool and practiced dunking each of our classmates so we would know how to baptize people without falling over or leaving the person under the water etc.  But one thing they didn’t teach usin that class was to watch out for wild flying punches.

One of the guys I was baptizing who will remain nameless (to protect the not so innocent) was so excited when he came out of the water he jumped up with both fists in the air.  Well both fists were in the air AFTER one made contact squarely on my left eye.  After seeing a few stars, turned my back to the crowd not knowing what my face looked like and assured my wet friend everything was ok.  I was just happy I didn’t fall over knocked out cold.

I spent the next few hours wondering if I would wake up on Monday with a black eye as a Baptism weekend souvenir.  Luckily I didn’t have such a souvenir.

During the baptism services photographers were snapping shots to catch the exciting moments for each of those being baptized and they caught this action shot.

Church IT Roundtable Sponsors

The Spring 2010 Church IT RoundTable is just a month away.  If you haven’t registered go on over to www.citrt.org and claim your seat, QUICKLY!

One of the great aspects of the CITRT National events is to learn about great products and services that you might need to implement or use in the coming year.  We will be again having the Vendor Bazaar were CITRT partners can share, demo, explain etc the technology and tools they sell. 

Every time I attend a National RoundTable I end up learning a ton about a specific tech or product and then get home just in time to hear a staff members say,  “Would it be possible to… “

Maybe there is already one of those “would it be possible…” projects on your list and you don’t know of a vendor with the solution, shoot an email to info@citrt.org with your need and we’ll see if we can find a vendor to meet with you face to face at the Roundtable.

Maybe you know of a vendor that others should meet and learn what they have to offer, if you have a vendor in mind contact them and encourage them to check out the CITRT Spring RoundTable Sponsors Page or email info@citrt.org for more information.

Church IT RoundTable 2010

One of those can’t miss opportunities for Church IT people is about to take place just a few weeks away.  The Church IT Roundtable’s National Spring event will be hosted at Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, CA) March 11-12.

If you have attended a CITRT event in the past, you know what I am talking about.  If you haven’t attended I am serious when I say its a highlight of my year.  Every time I go to a CITRT event I learn tons about Church Information Technology, I meet awesome peers and I have a great time.  If you are in Church IT (staff, volunteer, vendor) you can’t afford not to attend this event. 

If you haven’t already, make plans to head to Southern California March 11-12.  For all the details check out www.citrt.org

Snow Day Adventure

Since today was a snow day, I thought I would break the silence here on the blog.  Well not exactly a snow day with no work or school… but Jonathan’s first day to play in the snow. 

Over the past few weeks Natalie has insisted to find a great buy and purchase snow pants for Jonathan incase of a big snow… Well she found the deal, and I hope Jonathan likes the pants because they are big enough for about 3 winters!

We found the deal just in time for an ‘amazing’ snow fall of 1.5 inches which warranted a snow day.  So Today after we finished lunch we all go our warm gear on (some more gear than others) and headed out to the snow.

Of course when you are out in your first snow adventure, you have to learn you can eat snow as long as it’s not yellow snow (or brown, thanks Toby).

Since the snow was really wet we decided to make a Snow Man… as soon as I started rolling the snow we could hear  “Ba, Ba Ba” (Jonathan’s word for Ball).  The bigger the snow ball, the faster and LOUDER we heard “Ba, Ba, Ba”.  Soon he was yelling “BA”.

After rolling snow, we had our finished project and it was time for Dad to head back to the office, I think Jonathan enjoyed our lunch time adventure.