This is Only a Test

Its been awhile.

sorry world. life has been super busy.

here are a few life updates. and then we will get into some movie reviews.

i just turned 29. it was a great birthday. i had a freakin rad party on friday night.


yes, those are some sweet ol Makers Mark Cigars. amazing.







i love good friends and high spirits!

not only was friday good, but Sunday, my actual birthday was great too.

my wife and two sons took a rowboat out on a lake and went fishing, then me and my oldest son Grayden went and saw WALL-E.
it was a good birthday.

i also am in the process of building this awesome tree house, minus the tree. but it will be amazing.





MOVIE UPDATES
here is everything i have seen lately:

The Dark Knight


****1/2
well. first off. i have been collecting comic books since 1989. i am a big comic book movie fan. i pretty much love them all. so, i really like Dark Knight. However, i think people are making a bigger deal out of this movie than it really is. Heath Ledger for an Oscar? i hope not. the "deepest" movie this year? very unlikely.
i wish i hated it, because i hate that everyone loves it. but i didnt, it was a really good movie.

Jumper


*1/2
it got the half because this had potential to be a BA movie. instead it was a horribly put together story, with a awful love aspect that was not believable. it was bad, really bad. but it should have been so good good good.

The Bucket List


***
This was really good. certainly pulls on the heart strings and has a great truth intertwined throughout the movie. besides, you cant go wrong with Jack and Freeman.

Atonement


****
It just goes to show that if you have no idea what a movie is about before going into it, it always surpasses your expectation. This movie was great and i recommend it to anyone.


The Golden Compass


*
I am currently in the middle of the third book of His Dark Materials. These books are really really good. I knew this movie wouldnt be as good as the book, but i had no idea that it would suck so bad. they messed up all the characters, they spliced the story all up AND they forgot the cliffhanger ending. Ahhhhhh. this sucked.


WALL-E


***
This was a really good movie. my son and i both loved it. it was visually stimulating and the story was beautiful. it sort of reminded me of Frog Belly Ratbone, if anyone has ever read that childrens book.

so recent revelation.

lets define a term first.

the word is leadership. if you didnt know, this is the one of the new "hot" terms used in the church world. the way i understand it, is that you build these into your church, for growth, for being effective, etc. lots of books have been written on it and its pretty much stated that if you dont do this, then you may be doing it wrong.

yikes.


theory:
Leadership = the new 'sinners prayer.'

quick definition: sinners prayer. will always, from this point on be known as a huge mistake. apologies to all those who found Jesus through this mode of prayer...my bad. but really, this is were the preacher stands up, asks everyone to close their eyes and then if you would like to receive Jesus in your heart, then raise your hand. apparently in the few seconds you have your hand raised, Jesus zooms into your heart. good stuff. for me, this has always been viewed as a very very cheap way to make disciples. its just too easy, if you subscribe to this method, sorry, i just feel that its cheap.

leadership is the new sinners prayer. its a cheap easy way to get people "locked" into your church and in some ways, without really introducing them to the Jesus that will flip their world upside down.

one, who the heck cares about building a leader? unless a leader is defined as someone who reads their bible, prays, and has a relationship with Jesus. that i can buy into. thats what i want to be a part of building.

when our focus becomes so much about being this 21 irrefutable leader or building leaders in our church. i feel like we miss out. its a cheap and easy thing to focus on that has little to do with Jesus.