Monday Reflections!

* The Gathering last night was GREAT! WANTED went really well... you never lack an audience when you preach on purpose! ;-)
* We didn't have any clips from the movie, but we did have an awesome trailer... and we downloaded some nice pics from the movie website. As I preached, we did "intro's" of different characters from the movie, highlighting them according to a particular point in the message that correlated with the actors... it was great!
* I wore a shoulder holster throughout the message, too... really tried to look the part of a gunman. Not sure people were convinced... until I brought out my short-barreled shotgun! "Come and meet my little friend!!!" Oh... wrong movie! Don't worry, though... it was a BB gun. :-)
* About 6 first-time guests last night!
* I was pleasantly surprised by one of our guests tonight: she's a long-time family friend, who I've known since she was a little girl. She's all grown up now (finished grad school)... someone told her about my blog, so she's been following the Mosaic Journey... and decided to pay us a visit (plus, she wanted to surprise my mom and I). It was great seeing you, Nicole... don't be a stranger! ;-)
* My oldest son, DJ, paid me a tremendous compliment tonight... as only he can! He normally doesn't stay in "big church", but he sat in the sanctuary tonight, and got to hear Dad preach. When we got home, he said to me, "Dad, I think God really wanted you to preach, and you do it so well that He made certain movies come out just so you could talk about them!" Bad theology... but great compliment! My sons rock, man! Love you, D! ;-)
* Always great to see first-timers return, isn't it?
* Amelia, our newly-appointed Creative Coordinator, created some "Wanted" posters (like, the kind for CRIMINALS) that read, "Wanted: People of Purpose"... and had the little silhouette like the ones on Facebook, when people don't include their profile photo. They were posted all over the church... great touch! I love it when people get creative! :-)
* Next week: HANCOCK! Should be an awesome time! I'm thinking of doing a "Pt. 2" on purpose... but I haven't seen the movie yet, so I'm not sure. What do YOU think would be a good theme from HANCOCK to speak on?
* Saw Dark Knight tonight... really good. But I didn't trip over it like some did. I thought it was a really good movie... that's it. :-/ That joker was definitely NO JOKE , though (no pun intended)! DANG!!! Posthumous oscar for my man Ledger, that's for sure!
* I thought Batman's voice was really irritating... anyone agree??
* Hope to kick out two book reviews this week! Gotta crank! ;-)

**Edited at 2:14pm**