My white daughter’s favorite toy is a black baby doll.

Here’s the story: Amanda was taking our three children through the international hoarders’ Mecca that you might know as Walmart.  With just a couple of items to purchase, the boys had convinced Amanda to take a quick trip through the toy department.  As they passed by numerous items, Gloria began to reach out and scream for a baby doll.  As Amanda held different ones up to her to see for which one was she clamoring, she would emphatically shake her head at the dolls she didn’t want.

She finally got the baby doll she wanted – this cute, cuddly, smiley, black baby doll.  She picked it up, began to hug the doll, and started to say in a soothing manner,”Oohh, wee.  Oohh, wee.”  After some giggles and a few moments of cuddling, Amanda tried to take the doll back from her.  Bad mistake.  She clutched onto this baby for dear life and began to scream as if she was being attacked.

While Amanda tried unsuccessfully to distract her long enough to put the doll back, Eli came up with a solution.
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We had some guest worship leaders helping out this Sunday for Father’s Day at North Side.  I assembled some of the band to recruit their children to help lead in worship and we had a stage full.  I was so honored to have my two sons leading beside me.  Obadiah and Eli are passionate singers and musicians.  Many people commented on their energy, and I told them this was them on calm.  If you were out of town, watch online here.

Family is important at North Side.  We prize lifestyles of worship lived within the homes.  This wasn’t a stage idea for Sunday, this was an example of what real life in the home should look like – men leading their children to love Jesus.

That’s what was great about the other elements in the service today.  It was about fathers and sons going on mission together.  Men of God stepping up to lead in the Great Commission.

Today, we worshiped to:
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Below is a great snippet from Jeff’s message on church membership:

This week’s bad church sign says:

TIRED OF CONTEMPORARY?

COME TRY US.

I don’t know what town this is.  I’m unsure of what church this is.  But I know the situation exactly.  Want me to paint the picture?

It’s in the Bible belt.  It’s in a city where there is a lot of transfer growth.  Sheep hopping from flock to flock.  There is one (or more) churches who have grown recently due to a contemporary service or flavor.  Some of them are traditional existing churches that have turned more and more contemporary over the years.

The church in the picture has lost some members due to that fact.  In an effort to lure people into their flock, they use an advertising campaign for anyone passing by.  But the ad is not for just anyone, is it?  Read it.  Is it for church people or unchurched people?

It’s for churched people of course.  Outsiders don’t even know what a contemporary is in the context that us regulars understand it to be.  This church is appealing to members of another flock.  Actually, they are appealing to disgruntled members of other flocks in hoping that those worn out with the 20 minutes of contemporary worship music within a week’s time (which is .1% of the 10,080 minutes we are called to be the church all week long) will now join their flock.  Let’s gather a group of disgruntled sheep in hopes that all their hopes and preferences will be met at our church house.

That’s a flock full of quite the dynamics, I would say.

This sign reveals a bunch about the state of the American Church today:
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It was 9 years ago today that everything changed.

Her last name.  My responsibilities.  Our address.

The bridal processional on our wedding day was one of our favorite hymns, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”  As her father walked her down the aisle and our family and friends worshiped along with us, the emotions kinda let loose.  We both glanced at one another and cried.  We did one of those ugly sings at the altar.  It was kinda like when they make the American Idol singer sing after they have just won.  It ain’t pretty, but it is pretty honest.

That’s how we sang at 5:04 on June 12, 2004.

We choked out the words, “all I have needed Thy hand hath provided, great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”
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