The Invisible Thread

This weekend at Westwinds, we hosted a child dedication. At the Winds, child dedication is not equated with baptism or any spiritual rite of passage. Rather, dedication is more of an opportunity for parents to acknowledge before everyone the commitment they are making to raise their child in a Godly home as well as an opportunity for the people of the Winds to pray for and sometimes meet a family for the first time.

As you all know, we usually do things a little different at the Winds. In huge part, because we believe it is a sin to bore people with the things of God, in part because we believe engagement and interaction is a crucial part of our experience, in part because we believe we are charged with making the weekend Fusion a moment collection, and in part . . . we get bored really easily.

I was proud of the setup, interaction, and dual-importance of this week’s dedication.

Lori Tate—our Children’s Journey Designer—did a fine job of setting up the morning by sharing a Chinese proverb about a red thread:

An invisible thread
Connects those who are destined to meet
Regardless of time, place, or circumstances.
The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break

Our folks were encouraged to gather around a table where they took a red string and tied it around their wrist or put it in their Bible, etc. to remind them to pray for the families.

And (here is a really cool part) . . .

Everyone strung beads onto a long red string that was later broken up for the families. The beads represented the prayers of our people for the families.

There was dual significance in all this in that the beads were purchased from BeadForLife—a nonprofit organization providing impoverished Ugandan women an opportunity to lift their families out of poverty by making beads out of recycled paper.

So, in more ways than one, the invisible (and the visible) red thread tied our families to our church and to other families around the world.

I am so proud of our church.

This post is also part of Watercooler Wednesday over at Ethos. Check it out here.

Relationship/Causemology/Twitter oh, my!

Recently, we talked with Erin Kreger, who has quickly become one of my favorite people in the world along with her husband, Jay. We asked Erin to share what God has been doing in her life, what Westwinds means to her, how she has changed as a result of Westwinds and Westwinds'relationships, etc.

This interview was also very interesting to me because of what Erin says about Twitter and the impact it has had on her. For those of you who have wondered about the "rubber meets the road" stuff with our Twitter experiments and use of Twitter around Westwinds, watch this video!



Erin and Jay have been at Westwinds less than a year. They immediately jumped in to Causemology--which is Westwinds' life navigation portal and catalyst for missional engagement. They are serving in the areas of TechMedia and Facilities. They jumped in with both feet at Westwinds with a desire to know God better and be in community.

Honestly, we could not have paid an actor to do a better job at this faith story. We love you, Erin. Glad you are part of Westwinds.

P.S. We are showing this video in Fusion this weekend. If you are a pastor/worship leader/programming person/ etc. and you are not collecting and sharing these kinds of stories with your church you are missing out on some very cool stuff. This interview took little time to record, little time to edit, little time to upload, and the payoff is huge. People love to watch a fire burn. Erin's story is encouraging to me.

This post can also be found over at Watercooler Wednesday where really neat people share a bunch of cool stuff. Check it out!

Don't Just Watch it Once

Finally got to sit down and watch “Once” with my wife. Wow. One of the best stories I have seen. One of the best musical stories I have seen. I cried multiple times.

This movie—about a Dublin street musician and a Czech immigrant musician/flower girl who find friendship and a refreshing affinity for one another stole my heart.

Halfway through the movie I realized we didn’t know their names. And we never do learn them. Interesting how such well-rounded characters can befriend us without even knowing a name.

Amazing score. Wonderfully fresh plot.

So many sermon illustrations.

I bought the movie at Christmas on a recommendation and it took this long to sit and watch it (too many LOST episodes to catch up on). What a great treat this is.

I highly recommend turning on the subtitles. Between and Irish brogue and a soft-spoken Czech accent, you will get a little frustrated at times and the subtitles help immensely.

The song “Falling Slowly” from the movie is nominated for an Academy Award. The song made me weep like a little girl when I heard it the first time. Dang.

I highly recommend it to everyone. If you are a musician, stop what you are doing and run—don’t walk to buy the DVD.

*This post is also an entry in Watercooler Wednesday at Ethos. Please check out Ethos and become part of Watercooler Wednesday.