Video Update

This SNL sketch is sponsored by the U.S. Treasury.

Maybe if people would watch this, we wouldn't need a $700,000,000,000.00 bailout...



Thanks to John for the link.

Politicked

I haven't blogged in awhile, sorry about that!

Well, this is the only and last thing I'll say about the election and politics. I borrowed the title from a timely message series by Ed Young. Check out www.fellowshipchurch.com/politicked, some good stuff here.

I'll start off by saying that I have my own opinions about the candidates, the issues, and the outcome, but I've chosen to keep those private this year. Yesterday (Election Day) was an interesting and very exciting day for our country. I have turned into a little bit of a news junkie as of late, so I found myself flipping between all the political channels to see what was being said. I'm also a tech geek so I was checking out the different graphics and new technology that was brought out for this election.

Quick side note, my favorite new technology was NBC's virtual studios. The set graphics were a bit poor - they will get better as the system is improved - but the technology is amazing! My least favorite new item was some of the nonsense CNN had with a "virtual" capitol building that they put on a real desk to show congress seat changes. They also had a "hologram" interview with Anderson Cooper and some dude that looked like a Star Wars conference between Darth Vader and the Emperor. Finally, the touch screen maps with all the ridiculous John Madden-type line drawing. Good information, but a bit over the top.

Anyway, I was able to watch the election results with our small group from church, since we normally meet on Tuesday nights. Needless to say, it was a pro-McCain room. I also checked Facebook to see what my friends back in Missouri's election comments would be. And again, it was about 90% pro-McCain.

Everyone knew what was going to happen last night. Not that it should have stopped anyone from exercising their right and privilege to vote. But with such an unpopular Republican president in power for 8 years, plus the recent financial mess, it was a bit inevitable. The comments that were given last night during the results ranged from genuine concern, to the extreme and absurd. The candidate that 90% of my friends voted for lost last night, and I understand their disappointment and concern for the direction of our country. But let's stop the "Armageddon is here" and "The US is screwed", and "Our country will be run by terrorists" nonsense that I'm hearing. It does us no good as American citizens to be ruled by fear. Shouldn't our faith in God be stronger than our fear of one man? This country has been run by the Democratic party before, and we are all still here.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be concerned if you are a conservative or a Christian. I'm saying let's not go to the extreme in this, because I feel those comments are what gives Hollywood and the media ammo to label us all nut-jobs. Let's keep a cool head, an open mind, and continue to pray for our country and that God's will is done through the new leadership.

I know I'll probably catch some flak for this, but I felt it needed to be said. Have a great rest of the fall, and it'll be ok!

- T

New Song I'm thinking about introducing on Sunday

I've already seen this a couple of places, so here you go if you haven't yet.

Labor Day

So I've been lazy and haven't blogged in awhile. But it might not really matter that much because I'm not sure anybody reads this besides Mom & Dad. (That was a subtle hint to help my insecurity by leaving a comment or two :)

We had a fun trip home over Labor Day weekend, got to see the extended family. Haven't seen them since last Christmas, so it was cool to catch up and see the kids. The whole baby pressure reached a new level during this trip, I think my family thinks they are really wearing me down. Did it work, am I ready to give in? Or is my resolve to wait even stronger now? Stay tuned to find out......

But seriously we had a great time with family and friends. It was a little bittersweet though because we're not sure when we'll be in St. Louis again. Christmas this year is going to be wacky with Misty's work schedule. We're probably only going to be able to make it to the farm. Oh well. Florida in 1 week!! It's 1:45 pm and still in the low 50's here. I need the beach & some sun.

-T

Christian Bale needs to work on his Batman voice

My sister sent me this video today, and it made me smile.



What's Up With The Dark Knight's Voice - Watch more free videos

New Look

So yeah, I now have a newer, much cooler look to my blog. I love modifying existing templates! Oh, by the way, you can now just go to www.timmoore.org to get directly to this site. I forgot I had a domain name I wasn't using!

aspirations

So I'm thinking about doing some freelance design work for some extra income. Is that stupid? I've been doing some dreaming about it today, which feels good because it's honestly been hard for me to do that or be creative since we moved to GB. I'm going to a Zig Ziglar motivational seminar tomorrow, so maybe I'll be motivated to get the ball rolling with that.

We had a great small group tonight. We did a cookout at a park, and I had a good debate with a die-hard Brewers fan, and we talked about good ol' Missouri and what we miss about it (he went to Evangel for a couple of years).

We've got Convoy this weekend, and the youth group is coming up. Looking forward to seeing everybody. Then only 2 weeks till Labor Day! I don't want summer to end. We'll be snowed in till next April.

Goodbye Brett

Good luck in the Big Apple, Brett. I'm sorry that the Packers couldn't swallow their pride.

The newscasters up here were practically in tears when they had to make the announcement. Funny.

Welcome back Brett

Apparently the Packers read my blog.

The Favre Soap Opera

Ok, so I'm going to throw in my 2 cents about the Favre situation. Let me state that I am by no means a hardcore, or dedicated Packers fan, and I'm not by default a fan just because I live in Green Bay. I am rooting for the Packers because it's really the only thing you can look forward to during these long God-forsaken winters.

At first, I sided somewhat with the Packers organization. I agree that Brett put them in a tough spot by asking to come back after they had moved on and made plans to start AR. But with all of the comments by Ted Thompson and the fact that Brett is following through with his word, and willing to show up to training camp to COMPETE for his role (why a future hall-of-famer, one of the greatest QB's ever, and on top of his game would ever have to compete for a starting role is beyond me), makes me grow frustrated at the organization for their stubbornness. Granted, it's frustrating to have to switch gears. But it's not the middle of the season. It's not pre-season. Heck, training camp just started Sunday! They're treating AR like he has already won a superbowl for them or something. AR doesn't deserve what the Packers are giving him. He might deserve it if he's had real NFL experience. Even then it's questionable.

The Packers are a better team with BF as their starter, bar none. But unfortunately they are too prideful to acknowledge that, and an ugly situation has gotten downright disgusting because of it. Good luck to them, and good luck to Ted Thompson if AR gets injured or fails to perform this year.

I'm tired of this dominating the first 15 minutes of the local news.

My Wife was Right

I just counted and I'm wearing my American Eagle White t-shirt in 3 different posts. Misty told me I wear that shirt too much, and obviously she's right. Looks like I need to retire that one for a little while.

Good time with family

It was great to have mom & dad, Katie & Dan here this past weekend. It was my sister's first time up to Green Bay. We had to convince her that there was more than one restaurant in town and there were actually things to do here! We took them on a marathon tour of Door County, which included an absolutely gorgeous afternoon at Whitefish Dunes. 80 degrees and 0 wind - a rarity up here in NE Wisconsin. We caught the 9:45 showing of Dark Knight, my second time to watch the movie in as many weekends. Sunday afternoon was a tour of Lambeau, and cookout that night. Sad to see them go, but we'll be back in STL Labor Day weekend.

P.S. I'm improving on making blogs shorter....

Lambeau Lambeau

Don't you wish you were here? Misty and I took Josh and Lauren on a tour of Lambeau Field when they were up here 4th of July weekend. I'm trying to score some tickets for this season, we'll see how that goes. You wouldn't believe how much this town is obsessed with the Brett Favre soap opera right now!

Hilarious Video (If you're a dork like me)

So I stumbled upon this video on a blog of a staff member of lifechurch.tv and it made me smile and laugh out loud in a couple of spots. Their production department was asked to make a video to explain procedures to the rest of the church staff on getting projects accomplished, and they decided to have fun with it and make it as bad as possible. If you're a tech dork like me, you'll crack up.


LC Creative Training from Nick Jones on Vimeo.

Great Trip Home!

Last week was awesome, Misty and I got to go back home to STL for a few days because she was in a wedding for a friend. It was our first trip home since Christmas, and our first time to see a lot of people since last October before we moved. Every day was full of craziness, but I enjoyed it all. We got in town around 1:00 AM on Wednesday morning. We stopped by the office to see the ladies around 11 and dropped Maggie off to see Max & Miley (her dog-dad and....future mother-in-law?). We went to lunch with Pastor Ed & Karen, and I hung out with Tim, Kris, and the Chafin boys the rest of the afternoon. They asked me to lead worship for youth service that night, which was really cool. We really miss those kids! We had a great night at the service, and afterwards a bunch of us headed to Steak 'n Shake. I still can't believe they don't have any up here. I'm a little bitter.....

Thursday was family day, so I spent the morning & afternoon with my Dad. We went to CW's for some great St Louis style pizza & hot wings. Then we went to the hospital to see some of the progress they are making with their new wing and saw a lot of people he works with. That night we had dinner with Mom, Dad, Katie, and Dan. Great to spend time with the family again.

Friday was guy day, and it started off with a trip to Six Flags with Kris & Tim. Now, if you know me, you know I've been terrified of roller coasters all of my adult life. Well, I finally got over my fear last year, and I know I love it. But I hadn't conquered Mr. Freeze yet. Kris decided that would be his mission, so I rode it and loved it despite the fact that it broke down while we were 4 people away from boarding! After 6F, we met up with Rob, Ryan, and Josh, and headed to Bandanas (greatest barbeque place EVER) and then swimming. Great day, most I've laughed in a long time, had a huge migrane because of it, didn't get home until midnight.

Saturday was wedding day. Misty was in it, so I didn't get to see her much (I didn't really get to see her a lot on the trip - the only negative part). The wedding went well, but very interesting. I thought they were going to bust out into an alter call half way through! We went to Starbucks while we waited for the reception to start. After the reception, we chilled at Josh & Lauren's apartment.

Sunday was, what else, church! This was the first time we'd been at a service at Faith since last October, so it was cool to see everybody. Pastor Ed preached on homosexuality, which made me laugh (not the sermon, the fact that he rarely preaches on it, except the week we were there!). We went to Applebees with a bunch of people, then to Misty's sister's house for the afternoon. That evening we had dinner at Pasta House (another St Louis original) and then hung out with Mom & Dad that night.

We left Monday after lunch at Cracker Barrell with Mom & Dad. Sorry this post was so long, but we had a lot of stuff going on, and I want to remember everything we did! Josh & Lauren will be up this weekend, really excited about that!

-T

The Meaning of it All

As promised, here's the video of me singing my song "The Meaning of it All". I was psyching myself out before the show on these lyrics (I just wrote the song the day before and finished it that day) hoping I'd remember all of words to the verses. While I was introducing the song, I actually forgot the title! I just had a mental block because I had been focusing so hard on the lyrics that I forgot what I called the stupid thing. So I get through the first verse fine, and that mental block I had about the title continued through the first chorus, and "the reason for it all" came out for some reason. I thought as soon as I sang it, "wait, that wasn't right". And then I quickly realized what I did and had to make the decision, do I correct this and make it obvious, or do I go with the new lyrics for this chorus to make it look like I did it on purpose. So I went with the second option, and nobody ever knew, except my wife :) Fun moments. So if I ever record this song, this video will be a "limited edition" with special lyrics! Hope you enjoy.

I have a Lazy Dog

So I bring Maggie into work with me because it can get pretty quit here on Mondays, and she passes out on my futon..... Pathetic!

Great Experience on Friday

So as I wrote earlier in the week, I opened for Decemberadio last Friday. It was a great experience for me, especially because it was my first chance to perform outside a traditional church worship service. Everything went really well, even though I was nervous and kept thinking I was going to forget all of the words. I even wrote a song for it, which is a big deal for me, I'm not really a songwriter.

Decemberadio was awesome. I honestly had not heard much of their stuff before this event, just a couple of songs on the radio. They tore it up though, and even covered a Kansas and Lenny Kravitz song. Very entertaining! I'll have a youtube video with my song on it as soon as our internet quits messing up.

Really excited about going home for a few days tomorrow!

Survey

Ok, I'm bored so I'm going to try one of these girly-annoying myspace bulletin surveys....

1) What's a fact about the last person who texted you?

She is 4 ' 9"

2)where's your number two?

Um, I think this has something to do with myspace top friends or something, in which case I think he's running the youth service back in STL

3) What are you wearing?

Jeans, Chucks, and a t-shirt that I made for theMIX which was our college ministry back home.

4) Where was your default picture taken?

facebook - whitefish dunnes in Door County

Myspace - my office

Blog - my office

6) Who was your last hug & when?

Aww, isn't this cute! Misty

7) Do you prefer hot or cold weather

Umm, I used to like cold weather, now I DESPISE it, so hot.

8) What do you currently hear right now?

Tim (not me) teaching

10) What's your favorite Gatorade flavor?

Grape, definitely

11) What’s your favorite thing to have on your bed

bow chicka bow-wow.....

Honestly, my favorite thing I have while sleeping is my fan. Can I get an amen from all my brothers who get freakin' hot at night?

12) What's the nicest texts in your inbox say?

I don't know, my phone is in my office

13) Who would be the first people to know if you got pregnant?

Uh, probably a doctor because that would be scary. But hopefully me when my wife gets pregnant some day.

14) How old do you think you will be when you finally have kids?

Wow, now I know why I don't fill these things out. Probably 26 (do the math Mom & Dad)

15) What's the last thing you ate?

Grilled Chicken and a skinny cow ice cream sandwich (I'm trying to lose a final 15 lbs)

16) What was the last movie you went to see?
Indiana Jones 4, what a let-down (see my earlier blog). Can't wait for The Dark Night in July

17) Do you have Justin Timberlake music on your iPod?
As Ashley Meadows used to say, heck no techno!

18) What is something you are looking forward to in June?
Going home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One week from yesterday

19) Can you sleep in jeans?
Not unless it's a Sunday afternoon nap

21) Where were you on July 4, 2007?*
At the farm with Misty, Josh, and Lauren, and I remember something about a car getting stuck in the ditch because some moron was driving. I try to block that out, not my proudest moment.

23) Is there someone on your mind that shouldn't be?
Yes, Zach Chafin. He's my weakness.

24) Do you say "dawg"?
Fo sheezy my neezy

25) What was your first thought when you looked in the mirror this morning?
Honestly? "Not bad, not bad!" Guys are so vain. We are so fat and unattractive, yet we are usually quite proud of the way we look. Girls on the other hand, you are beautiful and you think you look like a cow! I'll never understand....

26) Do you care what others think about you?
Depends on what the situation is, but mostly, yes

27) Do you think you'll be married in 10 years?
If Misty can put up with me that long, absolutely

28) What made you happy today?

2 things: Our electric & gas bill keeps going down, and a call from Kris

29) What do you look forward to in the next 3 months?
Josh & Lauren coming up 4th of July weekend, Mom & Dad coming up the end of July, The youth group from Faith coming up for Convoy, Going home for Labor Day weekend, and September vacation with the folks to Destin. Do I sense a theme here?

30) How many people do you trust 100%?
More than most probably do, I know a lot of good people.

31) Who was the last person you called?
J.W.

32) Who was your last missed call?
Josh calling me back on Lauren's phone because his died.

Opening for decemberadio this Friday

I'm excited about this Friday, I get the privilege of opening up for decemberadio at the Cup O Joy coffee house in Green Bay. It will really be my first time performing away from a traditional church setting, so I'm excited and a little nervous at the same time. I know it will be a good experience though. If you're in the area, check it out! Doors open at 6:30 and the show starts at 7:30 pm.

A Nice Thunderstorm

So it seems like it's either snowing or sunny up here - there's not much rain, and thunderstorms are pretty rare. But last weekend and it looks like this weekend we're going to get some more rain and maybe some storms. It makes this midwest kid happy to hear thunder! But everyone else doesn't seem to enjoy it very much, it kind of freaks them out. Right now it's just a quiet thunder and soft raindrops, very peaceful in my office. I'm tempted to take a nap on my futon.

Successful Vote Yesterday

So yesterday we had a special business meeting after service to vote on selling our current property. It was an interesting meeting, with a lot of emotion from some people, but it yielded a positive result. The membership voted 64 - 16 in favor of selling our current property at Schoen St. and allowing the staff & deacons to find a new location to rent/lease for the next phase of ministry at Central. This is something that has been in the works for quite a few months, and it is something that definitely needed to happen to move this church forward.

Basically, our current facility is in major need of renovation, and it is in a poor location (right in the middle of a low-income, vandalism-heavy community with no visability from any major roads). We pay a little over $5000 a month on the note for our Family Life Center, and also pay anywhere from $4000 - 5000 a month on utilities! Renting a better facility in a better location would give us the boost we need to facilitate growth over the next few years of ministry. Now the major hurdle is finding a buyer for this property, but obviously if God is in it, he will make it happen.

This was an important decision for our church to make, and I'm proud of our membership to see the vision, trust the leadership, and vote to move forward. I'll keep you updated of the progress.

- T

Gas went down???

Last night on the way home from church, I noticed gas was down from 3.94 to 3.89 at the Shell station. This morning every other station was at 3.89. This is such a steal, I think I might run my jeep all day long so I can fill it up again and again!

Indiana Jones 4

So Friday night I went and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I've heard it's gotten mixed reviews, and I can see why. For me, it would have been an interesting movie by itself. But compared to the original 80's trilogy, it falls quite a bit short. The story and concept is pretty over the top, especially the last half of the film. I enjoyed seeing many of the classic characters again, but to me Indy wasn't really Indy except for a few witty lines. I don't want to discourage anyone from seeing it though, you might like it. But the last scene just made me want to puke. Totally out of character. Well, that's all, got to get back to service.

Afternoon in Door County

So Misty had the afternoon off, and I didn't have rehearsals tonight, so we decided to take a ride up to Door County and hit a few spots. We took Maggie with us and she had a blast. We spent most of the time at the beach of Whitefish Dunes on Lake Michigan. We were the only ones there so we got to let Maggie run free. It's still kind of cold there so no swimming today! Then we drove up to Sister Bay, and then home through Fish Creek and Egg Harbor (all little towns with lots of historic stuff and little shops). All in all a great afternoon & evening, looking forward to taking friends and family up here this summer. And I must say, it was nice to get away from Green Bay for a little while, even if we were still in Wisconsin :)

- T

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Maggie on the car ride up

The trail that lead to the beach

My beautiful wife

Maggie would chase the waves, then try and lap up as much water as she could before the next one broke

She was covered in sand by the time we left

Misty & I at the Sister Bay Marina

This was Misty's creativity at work

Grey Holiday LIVE @ Central

Excited about having Grey Holiday here this Sunday. They are a newer rock band based out of Texas. There songs have gotten quite a bit of airplay up here on the Q. One thing I definitely appreciate about being up here is having a decent Christian Radio Station. Those of you who have to listen to Joy FM know what I'm talking about. No more "El Shaddai" or other 80's Amy Grant being played every two hours! The last concert we had with Paul Coleman was really cool back in December. He didn't sing much, but the things he had to say were powerful. Hopefully we'll get some more music out of this group though!

- T

old post from myspace

I thought I would share a post from my blog on myspace that I wrote a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

Hey Everybody....

Have you ever felt like you were "surviving" rather than "living" life? Now, I don't mean literal survival, where you have to fight to stay alive or anything like that. I'm talking more about emotional survival. It's a place where you feel drained almost every day emotionally, and you don't really have anything significant to look forward to that gives you that emotional boost to make it through. I think most of us will go through this season in our lives at least once, and it's usually partly our fault.

Misty and I have lived in Green Bay for a little over 6 months now, and I have found it to be probably the most challenging season of my life. Moving away from home is never easy, but I thought it was. Yeah, that's right, I THOUGHT it was! For the several weeks leading up to our big move, all my mind could focus on was the excitement, the adventure, the potential benefits of leaving home (town) and making something of myself. While I was naively concentrated on the positive, my wife was dealing with the negative side - leaving family, friends, warmer weather, great job, history. And in those moments, I couldn't understand her, why think about those things when we can think about the positives - owning our first house, being more independent, helping to turn a church around and experience growth? The truth is, I didn't think much about what I would be leaving because they didn't have much value to me at that moment. "I can always make new friends, and I'll stay in touch with the ones I do have," and "Family will always be there," is what I thought. I didn't realize until New Year's Eve 2008 that aside from my wife and God, those people are the most valuable things in my life. It's sad that it took an 8 hour move for me to realize that. But hey, I'm a guy, I'm a little slow when it comes to these things.

So, I've been emotionally "surviving" for about 4 months now, and I am now trying to figure out how to break out of it. I've found myself praying "God, what are you trying to teach me in all of this," and "If you are, would you let me learn it already!". It's hard to open yourself up to new people when you don't feel like you have anything to give them. Survival mode can even affect the God-given passion you've had all your life. I find myself at times not caring much about worship & media which is foreign to me. I believe God puts us through this time of testing not to say "woe is me" or "my life sucks", because I certainly realize that my problems pale in comparison to other people, and I am truly blessed. There is a lesson to be learned through all of this, and I'm slowly figuring it out.

My buddy Josh has been encouraging me through a lot of this (that's his nature, it makes me want to slap him in the face sometimes :) J/J. He told me to read a book by Mark Batterson called "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day". Now, I am not a reader, and haven't read a book all the way through in quite some time. But I dedicated myself to read this one, and I'm glad I did. If any of what I'm saying relates to you at all, you should pick up a copy of this book. It basically talks about how our greatest challenges in life can turn into our greatest accomplishments. Most of us set a priority to keep ourselves away from tough situations and avoid seasons of trials. But Mark encourages us to seek out these opportunities as a way for God to do something incredible with our lives. In one chapter he talks about how God takes our greatest weaknesses and puts us in a position to overcome them. For instance, I am shy by nature, and do not enjoy speaking in front of people. And what has God called me to do? Lead worship. In front of people. Doing a lot of speaking. Needing to be somewhat charismatic. I've often wished that I was like a lot of people that are naturally outgoing, and getting up in front of people was easy for them. But I realized if I were like that, it wouldn't take any effort to do what I do, and there would be no reward in that. I believe that God is taking a shy guy who doesn't like the spotlight, and using him to lead thousands of people in his lifetime to prove God's ability to use us. Please understand that I don't say any of that arrogantly, I just want to prove how big God really is!

I don't really know why I wrote this blog, I guess I just wanted to share what I'm going through in the hopes that you can be encouraged that you're not alone if your going through the same thing. It also helps me open up in a way that I might not do if I was talking to you. I hope that things are going well in your life, and I will keep updating you on the progress here.

Blessings,

Tim

Missionettes Awards Night

So one of my reservations about starting a blog is being afraid I won't have anything interesting to talk about. Well, I only created it 3 hours ago and already have a good story to tell:

Tonight was the annual Missionettes and Royal Rangers Awards Night and Crowning Ceremony. If you're not a part of the AG world (sometimes I envy you!) you probably don't have a clue what this is. Missionettes is a ministry to girls that teaches them about the bible, how to be a strong Christian woman, and how to share their faith with others. Royal Rangers is a ministry to boys similar to the boy scouts program, but faith-based. Once a year the church honors those ministries usually on a Wednesday night. Well, tonight was the night and it was quite a night! Despite the fact it was a little unorganized, everything was going off pretty well. Then came time for the Honors Star Crowning. This is the highlight of the night. This is what you paid the cover charge for (our cover charge is called tithing, except it's optional to a lot of people). We only had one young lady being crowned tonight, and she was doing a great job until her mom got up and started reading a letter from her dad (His job relocated him so he couldn't be there). She was standing under an archway listening to her mom, when all of a sudden... BOOM! I didn't know what happened at first (I was frantically trying to find more tape for the video camera) but I just heard everyone gasp. It turns out she got a little dehydrated, and passed out right in the middle of the stage. She must have gone down hard because she moved a 30 pound speaker in her fall. It made me think of all those America's Funniest Home Videos shows I used to watch as a kid with people passing out at weddings and stuff. Fortunately, we got her some water and she was fine after a few minutes. But after something like that happens, you never fully regain everyone's attention. I would say I have video footage of the great fall, but I happened to be focused on her mother reading at the time. Oh well, looks like that clip won't be ending up on YouTube after all.

Anyway, thought that was kind of funny. Have a great night,

- T

First Post!

Hello Out There!

Very excited about entering the blogosphere, I've been enjoying some great blogs over the last few months and have decided to contribute instead of always being the consumer. I titled this blog music:art:life because those are the three main topics I will most likely write about. If you don't know who I am, have you been living under a rock? Just kidding, check out my profile to the right and I hope you enjoy!