New Blog Site in 2009

After much thought I have decided to re-launch my blog in January 2009.  I can’t release the site address yet, but I will keep you posted.  Stay tuned for more info.

"The Fine Line"

I have recently been thinking a lot about the difference in being "of" the world and being "in" the world.

I must not be the only one because i just found this great book coming out in December or January. It's called "THE FINE LINE" and you can learn more about the book and the author here.

dustin

Thanksgiving 2008

Well, it's been a good couple of days. On Thursday, Thanksgiving, my wife and I woke up at 7 AM to put our turkey in the oven. After about 7 hours of cooking, we headed down to our good friends house, Nick & Jamie Hampton. There we enjoyed great food and great fun.

On Friday, i woke up about an hour before Sarah and surprised her by having up the Christmas lights on our balcony by the time she woke up. We made a kickin' breakfast and then headed over to our friends new business that just opened up called "Rae Lynn's". After that we came home to decorate our Christmas tree and our home in every decoration imaginable.

Today, we decorated at the church building and then Sarah headed over to a baby shower of some friends of ours. After that, we had our much anticipated Christmas photo shoot in downtown Indianapolis with our friend Josh who is a professional photographer. Check him out here.

So that was my Thanksgiving 2008 weekend in a nutshell. Tomorrow at Friendship we kick off a new 4-week series called "God Has A Name" and then pick back up with our Revelation group tomorrow night.

talk to you soon!

dustin

Catalyst One Day

Yesterday day was inspiration overload for me as my Senior Pastor and I went to the first ever Catalyst One Day held at Granger Community Church in Granger, IN. Besides driving through a snow storm on the way home, it was easily the most encouraging and challenging days of 2008 for me.

This event had two main speakers that each spoke at two sessions each: Andy Stanley of NorthPoint Community Church and Craig Groeschel of Lifechurch.tv.

Steve Fee led worship and I actually got to meet him and Craig Groeschel.

Andy spoke on "Gaining and Sustaining Momentum" & "Don't Be That Couch" (about programming vs. your mission).

Craig spoke on "Creating Personal & Spiritual Momentum" and "Busting Barriers with Mindset Changes".

Dave, my Senior Pastor, and I both left with tons of ideas and re-energized to do what God has called us to do at Friendship.

dustin

Fun Set, a Video, and Baptisms

Just thought I would post our service order this weekend:

• Forever – Chris Tomlin
• Welcome/Greeting
• Baptism’s
• Everlasting God – Brenton Brown
• How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin
• Mighty To Save – Hillsong United
• Message:  “All or Nothing”
• In Christ Alone – as done by Liberty University Campus Praise Band
• Offering
• Special:  I Believe In You – as done by Harvest Bible Chapel
• Closing Song: reprise of Mighty To Save
  

dustin

Liberty Wins The Big South Title!

Just got the exciting news that my favorite college in the world, where i gleamed for 4 years, just clinched the win of the Big South Conference Championship!

They are actually ranked #25 in the BCS right now. Check out this article for more info!

dp

Accent Table - phase 2...and a half

so when i said i was going to wait to finish this project after Christmas, that was when I thought that i had to purchase a 4x8 piece of oak plywood. then i did a little math and research and found all i needed were a couple of smaller pieces of the plywood and that would do the job.

p.s. - never take one home-improvement warehouse workers word, always check with at least one other worker. this is how i found the boards i REALLY needed.

back to the project...

today i purchased a 2' x 2' piece of oak plywood at Lowes for $12 and cut it to the 20" x 20"square i needed for the top of the table. i haven't fastened it down yet because i need to get to the bottom and middle shelf before i fasten the top, but here is the cut top sitting on the frame:





wow...it's actually starting to look like something now!

dp