Just finished up an amazing day of class. Hard to explain what today looked like but safe to say it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Looking forward to more days of class.

So we’re staying on a 22 acre farm on Whidbey Island.  We got here on Thursday and traveling with the kids wasn’t so bad.  The time zone however killed us yesterday morning.  Since Kaije and Anneliese usually wake up around 6am (4am pacific) we were up pretty early.  On a good note we got a lot done before breakfast.  We fed the horses, went on a hike and sat in the hot tub all before 9am.  Even better my great friend Phil, his wife Amy and kids came over and spent the night.  We were up late hanging out and had some great conversation. 

Today we did very little. Went to a park, had some pizza at the beach in Langley and road the horses a little bit (bareback and a few steps) 

Naps happened today too.  Tonight we’re at my sister Ingrid’s hanging out and having enchiladas.  Tomorrow morning we’re driving into Seattle to go to Mars Hill Seattle for church and to see a few friends. 

Having a great and relaxing time.

We’re flying to Washington tomorrow for a couple of weeks. Once again it’s a combo trip. We’re spending time on Whidbey Island with family. On Orcas Island for school and then down to Olympia and Longbeach, WA for more family. In the middle of this trip I have to fly to Los Angeles to perform a wedding.

Looking forward to the trip.

Ok so I wish Blake was going to win but I think it’ll be Jordan….I’ll still buy Blake’s album. Go Washingotn.

I’m heading to Austin for 3 days with my youth staff. The goal of this trip is to sleep, eat, hang out and just be in community together. Our crazy summer starts next week so this is sort ofour last chance to be together relaxing.

Here’s my notes from my worship experience at church in Second Life this past weekend.

lifechurch.tv—Live streaming church in 2nd Life. This Campus was started in April.

Room- About 288 chairs. 3 video screens. Stage area.

Area in back for communication cards and Animation Hud (basically gives you animations so you can Worshp, Raise hands, Bow heads, shout God is good, All the Time.)
Outside of worship center
Coffee kiosk (nice touch), information terminals, seating areas, sunday school rooms,
Outside of buidling- XXX church, outdoor worship areas.
10am 40 people in room.

Worship experience- Ability to animate avatar is interesting. Right now drinking coffee and raising hands

It is possible to sit down and stand up.

Welcome 10:05- Welcomed live and internet. Prayer for mothers. Child dedications. Song while the dedications are going on. “Father let me dedicate” “Be glorified in me”

10:11- More time of worship. Had everyone stand. Someone asks for worship gesture help and is directed to the back of the room for the gestures.

10:12– Someone sits in front of me advertising for web surveys.

10:15- Took some screenshots of worship experience.

10:17 about 40 people in the room now. Approximately 10 with arms raised in worship. Just noticed someone dancing in the back. Pretty cool to be dancing to worship.

10:18- 2nd life has a chat tool where everyone in the room can interact. Several people are interacting with the worship experience via chat. Both singing lyrics and shouting God is good etc.

10:19- Worship leader just encouraged everyone to turn around and greet someone. I didn’t see anyone move but there was some chatting that happened.

10:19- 2nd Life Pastor Brandon Donaldson “Dagostino” He just led s in a “Good is Good” “All the time” response. There is an animation to click on that gives the congregation the opportunity to actually say it. Pastor Brandon is explaining everything to the 2nd Life family.

10:20- Announcements. Video is pretty cool. bunch of Faces and now talking about a new Campus starting. Albany New York is the newest campus. 147 people first service. 15 became believers.

10:20- Teaching “Fearless” From the book of Daniel
Pastor interacts with “All the campuses” This is a multi-campus church that happens all over the US.

There are links on the screen to allow you to see the Talk Notes and the Worship lyrics.

Streaming Live. What do I do if I have to go to the bathroom.

10:27- 34 people in the service

Video quality and sound quality is excellent. 3 screens are great and the text on the bottom of the screens is legible. Talknotes help. Video all the sudden of a blazing fire and the pastor teaching behind it. Obviously he had his manuscripted out and had done this part before the live service. Very seamless transitions.

10:37- in the Chat window several people are interacting with the sermon.

10:43- The Pastor just asked people in every campus to say “N0 matter what” That happened here in 2nd LIfe too as people said it via chat.

10:49 Sermon over. Pastor says “All of our campuses let’s pray together” It’s great how the 2nd life Community is “one” of the campuses. I believe there are 12.

10:50- Once again talking to all the campuses. Asked everyone to raise their hands. Hands we’re raised in 2nd LIfe. Prayed for everyone again.

10:52 Alter call at all campuses. Said “without looking around” let’s pray.

24 people here.

10:55 Campus Pastor again came on. Asked them to raise hands here in 2nd life if they wanted to become a believer. We prayed in 2nd Life. People responding via chat. several people standing up with hands raised. C couple people went to the front and kneeled by the stage.

Pastor then said that they wanted to get material into the hands of anyone who prayed to accept Christ today. Showed them how to click on the communication card and that a packet would come in the mail.

Pastor of LIfe Groups came up to talk about having LIfe Groups on 2nd Life. Sort of like Small groups. Intentionality is important.

11:00 done

I’ll write up a blog about this tomorrow but here’s a quick blurb. I went to church today in the virtual world Second LIfe. It was surprisingly better than I anticipated.

Here’s a quick pic.

Yesterday our whole church staff went to a Lake house for the day. Apparently there are only two things to accomplish at this day away. First, the goal is to spend time together. Second, to win the tug-o-war competition.

As an added bonus this year after lunch we were visited by a 4 ft long water moccasin (that’s a big snake for those of you not from Texas) the snake slithered across the lawn and wrapped itself around a little red wagon. The homeowner who was about a 70 year old man came out of the house with a shotgun. A coupel of staff guys decided to get the snake off the wagon and when they did they thought this guy was going to shoot it. So as they tried to kill the snake with their hoes and rakes they were worried their feet were going to get shot off. That’s why they kept yelling “Don’t shoot.”

This week has been great. Friday night my good friend Jason Djang was in town. We flew him in from Los Angeles to do a Q and A time after the showing of the movie he co-directed Dear Francis. Really fun night to have a bunch of students and adults come together to learn about what is happening with the Aids epidemic in Swaziland. Jason and I have been friends for a long time and I value him. Yesterday we managed to drive all over the Dallas area and had a good time out for Cinco De Mayo with Danielle last night. On a sad note that is not a Holiday celebrated here in Dallas. I tried to explain to people how big it was in California but they just gave me blank looks.

Today I preached in our 1105 service. Great stuff but plagued by Mic problems. Just rolled with it though and after the service we figured out the problem.

This afternoon I managed a nap. Stoked when that happens.