Table Rock on Facebook

If you are not famliar with Facebook, it is time to check it out. It is a new contender in the online community movement. I've been playing with it for about a month now. At one time I was a part of MySpace and found it to be too juvenile and sexual. It was not the place I wanted to blog and find relationship. Face book was originally created to connect students at a college, but now has grown to one of the largest and definitely fastest growing online community. It's kind of fun to invite friends and meet new people, like-minded people and reconnect with old friends. I've created a new group on Facebook for Table rock Fellowship people. If you'd like to join and add me as a friend, head here. If you are an attender of TRF and you'd like to join the Table Rock Fellowship group, head here. If you'd like some great practical info on getting started with Facebook, head here, here and here
Enjoy!

God's Beauty Through A Child

Today at church, I was talking to one of our electric players and he reminded me of this young girl named Akaine (thanks Al). I remembered reading about her a long time ago. Al sent me the link to her website. This 12 year old girl had a life changing spiritual transformation when she was 4. This transformation lead her Atheistic parents to the Lord. At the age of 4 she began painting and writing poetry and is considered to be one of the 20 greatest artist/poets alive today. She is surrendered to the fact that God gave her a gift and this gift is to be used to display God and His love to others. She is 12!!! I love this. I am going to try and get a hold of one of the books she has co written about her life. Yes, one of the books she has co-written. This story and this girl are amazing! This picture is one of her famous paintings. It is called "Prince Of Peace". She painted it when she was 8!

Kutless PRS Contest

So the band Kutless is holding a contest. They are looking for people to join them for one song only at their major festival dates this Summer. They will pick 6 winners, one for each festival. they will videotape the performances and host them on youtube. They will then pick the best of the 6 and that person will win a guitar and some other nice prizes. One of our guitar players for the worship team at TRF decided it would be fun to try out. This is his tryout video.

Urban Legend DVD's

Hey, you guys are going to want to check out the DVD's available this weekend at TRF. They will be awesome. They are $5 and all the proceeds go to the youth ministry.

Check it out here...

I'm in Portland....and it's raining!

I guess that shouldn't be a surprise. Portland can get dreery, but I was hoping for better weather.

I have had the opporunity to come up here for the weekend to do some research for TRF. I met with some of the staff at Living hope Church in Vancouver. What a great group of people. They reminded me a lot of Table rock and the staff we have. Lots of similar ideas, passions and the same sense of team! It was great hanging with them yesterday. Tammy and I will be going to church there tonight and enjoying worship with them. Living Hope is Video Venue/Multi-Site church, so we will also be attending church tomorrow with them at one of their satellite campuses. I do have to tell you about trying to find the church though. We left early Friday AM (from our friends house, where we are staying). I had directions to the area of the church and figured I'd call for the last couple of street names. As we head into Vancouver, WA, I call the church and ask them what exit would be best to get off at. I talked to a sweet lady named Marge. She was so nice. The problem was that she believed I was on I205 and I was on I5. She proceeded to tell me to go to Exit 30b. I confirmed that with her, because that was 30 miles farther than where I was and I was certain they were closer to the Washington/Oregon border. After she confirmed that with me, I hung up and headed on my way. After about 20 miles, I got the sick feeling that this was not the correct direction. I called back and talked to another lady and she confirmed with me to take exit 30b Off I5. So we kept heading north. When we came to exit 30, we noticed there was no 30a. We figured, maybe exit 30b was next. When we arrived at exit 32 and had not seen an exit 30b, my stomach sunk again. I called back and got Marge on the phone. I told her I can't find 30b, I am at 32. She said perfect, take that exit. That exit is called "something parkway". I said back...no this exit is "something River Rd". There was a moment of silence and then from Marge's end came a..."OH NO! You are on I5!". Yes, I was sent 30 miles farther north than I needed to travel. We got back on the freeway and came 30 miles back and at that point had no problem finding the church. Marge felt terrible, but I have to say she redeemed herself. As we arrived at the church, we met her and when we asked where the bathroom was, she gave us perfect directions to the bathroom. If you ever visit Living hope Church, make sure to give Marge a big hug for us, she is a sweetie.

Of course, we had to find a decent little coffee shop WITH WIFI today...to catch up on email and such. The friend we are staying with recommended this place...




It is called Bella Espresso. Very cool little place with a great kind of Gothic feel. Pretty good coffee too.

Anyway, I think we'll go take a nap before we go to church. we miss you guys at TRF tonight. It is always a little wierd not being at "home" for church.

Last Weekend

Last weekend at church was great. We started our new series and the response was amazing. I think dealing with spiritual myths is really going to be a challenging, eye opener to a lot of people. Pastor Tom spoke to the fact that so many people get their "truth" from Oprah and The View. The problem is that culture's truth changes constantly and then we are left with misinformation and often despair. I am so grateful that our God never changes!

If you want an update on the weekend and to keep in touch for the rest of the series, be sure to check out the "Message Series Blog".

Check Out The Video

Here is the video to kick off our new series on Urban Legends and Spiritual Myths. Remember to check in and keep up with the blog for the new series over here...

See you this weekend!

Hilarious!

I can't wait till you all see the video for this weekend. It has been a blast working on it. David Choate and Brent Friesen are hilarious, but I think the stand out comic is Bobby Baugh. It's gonna be fun!

We are going to focus on "Absolute Truth" this weekend. So much of society does not believe in absolute truth. We have to understand #1 that absolute truth is for real and #2 that the only source for absolute truth is God's Word.

Invite a friend or a family member. I bet when I said that, you were thinking of someone. Go for it. Ask them along.

Then, on Monday we will begin blogging about our series at Spiritual Myths. You'll be able to watch the videos, get a recap of the sermon and keep in touch for the upcoming weeks. Make sure to subscribe to the feed and you won't miss out on anything!

See ya this weekend!

Urban Legends...Spiritual Myths

So we are finishing up a sermon series this weekend here at TRF, called "Overcome". It has been really cool going through the book of Acts and being challenged as a church to go deeper as a community and as individuals.

I am really excited for a new series we start next week called "Urban Legends". We were inspired by a series of sermons Lifechurch did. We wanted to take the chance to discuss spiritual myths and many common beliefs the world has that go against the truth of God's word. We will discuss things like, "Does God want us happy?" and "Truth is Relative". It should be really fun to tackle these discussions with the Fellowship.

Today, a group of us Pastors spent the day up above Applegate Lake shooting a series of videos for this upcoming series. We had a blast. I think you guys are really going to enjoy the work we have put into it. I can't tell you what it's about, but Southern Oregon and Urban Legends kind of gives it away.

Anyway, be watching for updates on the series. We will be starting a blog that will have preview of weeks to come as well as reviews of the previous weeks. All the videos used in the TRF services will be posted their as well. So when you go to work on Monday AM and want to show everyone the stuff you saw and heard Sunday, you will be able to take them to the blog.

Be praying that God will use this coming weekend in a powerful way as Pastor Ron finishes up our study of the book of Acts. There are definitely softening hearts and lives being changed. It is fun to see Him at work in all of us.

Easter 2007

We are having some fun with promotion of our Easter services at TRF. We are in the middle of a sermon series called "Overcome". It is taking us on a journey through the book of Acts. It is teaching us as people and as a church how to build our foundations in Christ (Origins), how to approach and tackle issues and problems on our journey (Obstacles), and how to look for and live the life God has intended for us (Outer Limits). We as a Pastoral staff have had a great time putting together this journey. For Easter we will begin the third part of our series "Outer Limits". We are going to focus on Saul's conversion. We've built a website and promo to excite people about what's to come. Go check it out here. tell a friend about it. Email everyone you know with the website address. No need for any explanation, just pass the info along. See ya Easter Sunday at TRF.

There's a New Guy In Town

We are in a new series here at TRF called "Overcome". We are studying through the book of Acts. this week we will focus on the 3rd chapter of Acts. We will talk about opportunities. One of our Pastors, Ron has jumped into the blogging adventure. We are going to be asking attenders of TRF to email their stories of Opportunities in their lives. It should be fun to see how God has worked in peoples lives. They will all be posted over on Ron's blog. Check them out next week.