Who do I have to know...

...to get seats at an event next to the Dali Lama? It looks like Rob Bell is just chillin' there with the Lama at a Lakers game. Thanks for the pic Ian. Random!

Craziness before the calm

Quick note...Stirring was awesome tonight. I love that we are talking about spiritual gifts within the context of love and family. "We're different on purpose." Got to pray with a bunch of people tonight...we have a really great family!
Back to the craziness...we leave Thursday for vacation. We are spending a couple days with friends and family in Riverside then we are headed to Newport with no kids for a couple days...praise Jesus!
Why is it that everything in the whole world has to get done the few days before you leave for vacation? You work twice as hard before you leave, which means you're twice as tired when you actually get to rest. Oh well...I can't wait to relax with friends and family. If you haven't taken a vacation this year and you aren't planning on it...shame on you! Nate will get mad at me for shaming people but we all need a break. God designed us for work and rest. Plan something...put it on the calendar right now...guard that time with your life...it will give you life in return.
Can't wait!

Graduations

So I sat out in the sun today with my family and watched the seniors at Simpson graduate. There were three students that all came through The Grove youth group that graduated today. Tyler, Holly, and Daniel. We were also there to see our friend Trisha graduate with her masters...you go girl!
Graduations crack me up. Old people singing weird songs...choirs...outside speaker that comes in a throws out one last don't do drugs and make sure you got good friends speech.
Seriously...Is that the best we can do? Did these students spend TONS of money and four years in classes to dress up in robes and weird hats and have someone make sure they have everything checked off on their Christian checklist? (pretty sure that was a run on sentence)
Why can't someone get up there and challenge these students to change the world by loving God and each other and the world and the least? What about the emphasis that Simpson is supposed to be about...go into all the world and make disciples. Make God's kingdom a reality in Redding and the ends of the earth. Seems like the easiest platform in the world to inspire some folk. But instead they got one last play it safe speech...bummer.
Sorry for the soapbox...if any graduates are reading my blog...go out and change the world...there are a ton of people in your city that need to know Jesus. Love people in such crazy ways that the world is forced to take notice. Don't play it safe...break all the rules...don't do it the way it's always been done...we believe in you.
Congratulations!

N.T. Wright interview

I found this N.T. Wright interview on someone's blog. Lots of cool content. This is the list of issues he covers in the interview.

1. On Being Compared to C.S. Lewis
2. On Eschatology Leading to Action
3. On Mark Dever’s critique of Wright’s notion of a “public gospel”
4. On Avoiding the Errors of the Social Gospel
5. On the Importance of the Ascension
6. On Hell
7. On Purgatory
8. On Doug Wilson and Third World Debt
9. On John Piper’s Future of Justification

It's enough to explode your mind this week! Your welcome.

What the heck?!??!!

Why did God give us the cutest kids on the planet?

Almost home

We're in the terminal waiting to come home. Can't wait to be home and see my family. I gave a little update from our trip here.

Church plants, sun, food, hot tub, 2:40am

Sat in the sun for 1/2 hour today. Don't know if you can tell but my forehead is on fire. The download of information today was out of hand. So much good stuff...so many good talks...my brain hurts. Had dinner with Nate, Bill, Jill and Tim and talked about great stuff. We laughed till my face hurt. Our hot tub at the hotel is 127 degrees...I no longer posses the first layer of my skin. Last night we went to bed at 2:40am...we planned out stuff for the Stirring for the next year...good times. I'm gonna try to get some sleep tonight.

32 in Orlando

I turned 32 yesterday on a plane flying from Sacramento to Orlando. I had dinner with Nate, our church planting coach and his wife at BJ's. Weird. Got a free pazzoki...word.
Kind of weird not being around family. I had some family and friends call me but it was still kind of weird. I remembered that it was my birthday as Nate and I were driving to the airport. I guess Birthday's become less of a deal as you get old.
All I know is Jesus was crucified when he was 33 so I got some serious work ahead of me this year. I love my life, my family, my friends, my church. Getting old is cool. I'm stoked about this year. Sucky thing is that I threw my back out getting out of bed yesterday...that can't be a good sign.
Conference has been great...I'll blog later on that. Hot tubbin' time!

Orlando here I come

I'm takin' off tonight after the Stirring. Nate and I are headed down to Sacramento to stay with his parents tonight. We get up early for a flight to Orlando. Four days out there for the Exponential Church Conference. It's focused on church planting and it should be really cool. I'm looking forward to hearing from Alan Hirsch. Some people hooked us up to go so I'm stoked. I will try to blog while I'm gone but I have no clue what my internet situation will be like. Have a great week!

Sunday is groomin' day

Being bald is awesome! I haven't really had hair in a photo since our wedding pictures.
I am in a constant battle to make my life more simple. For years I've shaved every other day or every three or four days. But I have found that I can get away with shaving my head once a week now. I will usually shave the neck once or twice through the week but Sunday is grooming day. I have everything boiled down to about 15 minutes once a week...amazing!
Here's the routine:
1. Trim bottom of the beard with #2 extension
2. Trim sides of beard and mustache with #1 extension
3. Trim from bottom of the ear to middle of the ear with no extension, higher setting
4. Trim from middle of the ear to top of the ear with no extension, lower setting (makes for the perfect transition to the baldness)
5. Shave the head
6. Shave the neck
7. Newly added to the routine. Trim the arm hair with clippers...no extension. (This is not in attempt to highlight my guns...it's because my arm hair is out of control and there is a forest on my left arm that makes it impossible to see my tattoos. Then if I leave the forest on the right arm it looks crazy...hence...it all comes off.)
8. Periodically thrown into the mix...cut down the 3 inch stragglers that sprout from my shoulders.

And that's all folks. 15 minutes every Sunday morning. The life of a bald man. Don't be jealous.

Is your grooming process simple or crazy?

Side note: quite possibly the most random post ever on RevRock

13 minutes and 30 seconds...

till Alyssa pulls in the driveway. I'm not anxious or anything. To everyone in the world that pulls off the single parent thing...I salute you...you've got one crazy job! Have a great Saturday.
Oh and by the way...the dog pooped in the house again last night and peed on a couple of my friends when they came over to play poker...I found out that one swift kick + low backyard fence = less problems in my life!
Just kidding...don't call PITA on me...but seriously...I thought about it.

My dogs poop is allergic to...

...CEMENT!!! Ever since we have finished our back yard with cement my dog has been pooping in the house...what the heck??!!? She never poops in the house but apparently she doesn't feel comfortable dropping a loaf on hard surfaces...she prefers carpet...unbelievable. Any suggestions besides torture and repeated kicking? I'm saving those techniques for the next time.

Two days without the wiffy

Alyssa just took off to spend a couple days with her closest friend Annette. They are meeting halfway between our two homes (Santa Cruz and Redding) for a girls retreat away from hubbies and kiddies. Alyssa is the hardest workin' momma on the planet and honestly I can never give her enough of these little times away to recharge. She is an amazing, sexy, big bellied woman and I am the luckiest dude on the planet!
Have a blast babe...I love you!

Instant backyard

This is what I've been doin' the last couple days. Yesterday T.J., Brent and I brought in a ton of fill dirt with wheelbarrows to get ready for the cement. Today...instant backyard! Bring on the BBQ's.

Carry weight

I just got done speaking at the Stirring tonight. We're talking about the family that God has in mind and what it looks like to grow and mature in that family. I proposed that as we grow we contribute and we start to carry weight. I'm pretty sure I surpassed the normal quota of times you can say poop in a sermon. Oh well...poop is always awesome material! Tonight was a lot of fun and also super intense at times. Sometimes I struggle to find the filter when I share...it comes out pretty raw...hence the poop stories.
I'm gonna start getting some really weird traffic coming through my blog. In my last few posts I've mentioned afterbirth, Joel Osteen and poop.
Can you tell I'm tired? I think I'm gonna sleep till Tuesday. We reached 30,000...Yippee!

Who's gonna be number 30,000?

only 60 more visitors till we hit 30,000 on ol' RevRock. What the heck?!!? I'm like Joel Osteen...well maybe not...more like Rick Warren...yeah...me and Ricky...two peas in a supersized pod!

Creepy eye piece

Did anyone see the piece that Alyssa and I put together with all the shots of people's eyes for Erase the Dark? This is a picture of my daughters eyes. They were not easy to capture...she is constantly moving. I'm not much of an artist but I love to create things and it was a lot of fun to pull this off with my wife. She had two pieces of photography that sold last night...they were both amazing. This was my favorite...

Isn't she awesome?

That wine has an oaky afterbirth

I finally got to watch the first episode back of The Office...amazing!

One crazy night!!!

450+ people in a gym
6 amazing musicians
6 great films
100+ pieces of art
The best food even eaten
$5500 total raised for Cypress Elementary and Eagles Soar after school program
Our first Erase the Dark music, art, and film festival was a huge success.
Thanks to everyone that made it happen!

John's story

We shared this video the second night of our "We are family" series...powerful stuff!

Do you have any idea...

...how long it takes to hang and light 100 pieces of art in a gym and make it look cool? I do! You've gotta come to Erase the Dark tonight. I'll post pics tomorrow. It's like Anthem on steroids. I'm not exaggerating...there are 100 pieces of art. It's gonna be fun.

The bald worship leader

Ian sent me this. Hilarious. Long live the bald worship leader!

You gotta laugh

The Dunlaps

Here are two of the most important people in the Lance universe. Steve and Karen were up for a few days to hang out and it was awesome. They are amazing friends and we miss them like crazy! Can't wait to see you guys again in May.

THIS FRIDAY!!!

Go here to check out the info. This Friday night, April 11th. 7pm. 10 bones. It's gonna be ridiculous! Great music, films and art. Alyssa is putting in a couple photos. Can't wait...spread the word.

The mad scientist

This is what happens when my son goes to the garage for a few minutes. He jumps in the car...sees that the sun is shining into the car...finds a CD...places it strategically where the sun is shining...and creates this amazing rainbow on the ceiling! He seriously blows me away. He's turning 5 at the end of this month and sometimes I think he's brighter than I am. Seriously...what kid does this. Ezekiel is going to be an amazing man of God. I also have this crazy feeling that he is going to do some things as an engineer or scientist that are going to change the world. I'm praying his ridiculous passion for fans is going to drive him to use wind to power countries that don't have it. I love the mind that God has placed in my son. I better go get him out of the garage!

Me and the kiddos

Alyssa is off to women's retreat. It's me and the kiddos for a couple days. They miss mama but we're gonna have a great time. I like the daddy time I get with my kids...they're awesome. Blogs might be sparse for a couple days. Pray for the women at the retreat.

I woke up to an alarm clock today...

...expect big things!

My theology of waking up

You got the guy that lets his mom wake him up and he keeps saying 5 more minutes.
There's the "stay up till three in the morning dude" that goes through phases of being less asleep until he emerges for dinner in a state that resembles awakeness.
Of course the annoying guy that is up with the sun every day.
You got the "hit the snooze guy" that does it so much that the button no longer works and he has to buy a new one.
There is "sleep in guy" that you know you can't call before lunch.
I used to be the "set my alarm at the same time and get up everyday guy."
Now I'm the "pray that my kids sleep in but they never do and when they wake up I take turns with Alyssa in getting up even though she does it more than I do and on those days that I don't get up I get an extra 1/2 hour of sleep guy."

My point being...you can tell a lot about a person by how they wake up. I find that when I wake up to an alarm I'm more disciplined. It's weird but all these things tend to happen when I get up to an alarm: I spend more time with God, I am disciplined with working out, I eat better, and I feel less stressed. My first choice of the day is to be proactive and the rest of my day follows suit.
When I wake up based on my kids I am starting my day based on the circumstances of others. The rest of my day tends to follow suit. I tend to let other peoples priorities consume me and I'm not led by the things that I know I should be doing.

Conclusion...I'm setting my alarm clock tomorrow.

How do you wake up? Does it affect the rest of your day?

The next 38 days

My wife goes to womens retreat
Steve and Karen come to visit (can't wait guys!)
Erase the Dark (our first music, art and film festival) goes down. It's gonna be amazing!
I lead worship a few times
I speak twice. We've officially launched our "We are family" series
Nate and I go to a conference in Orlando
I turn 32
My son turns 5
We go to Riverside for a week of fam, friends and the beach
Creepy floating baby will have less then 100 days in the countdown.
What the heck???!!?
Bring it on!!!

Justice in the Burbs

I'm about a 100 pages into this book. This morning I read this portion that was in response to Matthew 25:31-46. Those who have ears...let them hear!

Jesus lives next door. He's an eight-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother. The Son of Man looks like those starving Ethiopian children. He only gets breakfast and lunch at school, when he makes it. His mama is a crack whore. Nobody knows where his daddy is. I heard his mama lets her "Johns" do things to him.
Jesus is two houses down and has six children. Now he's pregnant with the seventh. I don't know if he hasn't figured out what birth control is, or what, but how does he expect his husband to feed all those babies on that salary? And you know with all those kids the Lord of Lords can't work. That means hard working taxpayers' money has to go for Christ's food stamps! He needs to get fixed.
The Lord is a crazy man-paranoid schizophrenic . If he doesn't take his medication, he walks up and down the street cussing and spitting on everybody he passes. He's homeless. Nobody knows where his family is-if he's got one. Digs out of the trash cans for food. Somebody ought to get him off the street.
Jesus is nothing but a nuisance.
I'm starting to see the Son of God everywhere I go. He's always crying or begging or looking pitiful. Why doesn't he pull himself up by his bootstraps? This is America! Makes me mad. He's ruining our neighborhood.
Somebody ought to do something about him.
Somebody.

25 peeps in my front room

Yesterday was a really great and really long day. It started with a Life Group leaders meeting at 9am and people left around noon. We crammed 25 people into my front room...it was pretty crowded...plus the fact that we were missing 10 people...that would have been crazy! It was awesome to hear what's going on in groups and to push forward some vision for where we want to go.
Grabbed lunch, changed the strings on my guitar and took off for the Stirring.
Led worship...taught a new song that I just wrote...went over well.
Nate started our "We are family" series. Changed everything he was going to say an hour before he shared. We had no idea how hard the word would hit but it was really intense. We have a ton of restoration that needs to happen in our community when it comes to the idea of family.
Great night...went home...talked with Alyssa and my mom...went to bed...woke up at 5:30am to take my mom to the airport (thank God for flights out of Redding to LAX)...came home...went back to bed and slept till 9am...haven't done that in over a year!
Today's been an awesome Sabbath...family, reading, resting, eating, riding on my Vespa with my son...it's been a good couple days!

Work day at Cypress

This is the school that we are sending our proceeds to for our Erase the Dark (music, art, and film) festival. We painted doors, railings, cabinets, moved furniture, built shelves, sanded benches. It was a good day. Small things done with great love. We are hoping this is the start of a long relationship with this school and this neighborhood. The principal was totally pumped when we left. It was fun!

Busy weekend

Mom came into town Thursday night
Went to work this morning
Hung with Nate a little to talk about Sunday
Off to dinner with fam
Couples night at the Leavers
Work day at Cypress Elementary tomorrow morning...9:30am. Feel free to come out
Nate is shooting for his short movie all day that he's putting into Erase the Dark. I'm supposed to be in it at some point.
Sunday morning we have all the Life Group Leaders (30 people) in my front room for two hours talking about vision.
Sunday afternoon I'm off to the Stirring to lead worship.
Mom heads out Monday morning.
Not complaining...just a lot going on...all good stuff...some weeks I wish we had 26 hours in the day...not to do more stuff...I'd spend it sleeping!

Hagabeefy has entered the mix...

...go give him some love. For those of you don't know him by an alias: Hagabeefy, Homequist, El Fumar, or Fume. This is Josh Hagquist. Formally of Dogwood, Belvas Diesel, Silage, Ediger 309, Ember, The Beautiful Mistake, The Midwinters, and now his solo project. We go way back...way back. Ask him questions about Bramble, Casa G, White Chocolate, big gulps, and three rolled tacos. I could go on forever.

Do not question the prophet of rock!!!

I'd like to introduce you all to MY SON!!!!
There's another picture that shows his manhood in all its glory but I didn't really want to humiliate him before he entered the world...there will be plenty of time for that!
Maybe we shouldn't have given away 7 boxes of Zeke's clothes right before we moved...oops!
We are super excited. Thank you to everyone that is praying for us.

Hung out with Joel and his buddies last night

Joel's the one in the middle. Great guy, great musician, great artist. It was great to catch up and talk with his band...awesome people. His band leads worship at Biola and they are on a mini tour up the coast. They stayed at our house last night. You can check out there stuff here and Joel's solo stuff here. Keep rockin' Joel!

Boy or girl???

Erica told Alyssa we needed a poll and time is running out. We go in for the ultrasound tomorrow to find out what we are having. I will hold out till the weekend to tell everyone what we're having. I already know that there is a little boy growing inside of my wife and his name is going to be Moses "the Edge" Lance. But we want to hear from you. Do you think it's going to be a boy or a girl? Let's hear it...

Amazing

Last night at the Stirring was crazy.
A bunch of people that signed up to get baptized didn't show up.
First gathering we only had two but both of them were amazing. Friends and family around the tank praying and celebrating new life...it was awesome.
Then Randy Miller comes up to me after the gathering and starts talking about my testimony last week. He asks if he can get baptized...I grab his wife and Jeremy and we dunk him in his street clothes.
Second gathering we baptize 12 that were scheduled...each one was amazing...two people from my Life Group...one girl that started following Jesus this month.
After the scheduled 12 I ask, "does any one else want to get wet?" A girl throws her hand up and runs up. Then her sister jumps in. All in all I think we had about 7 people decide on the spot to get baptized. Street clothes, no towel, ready to follow Jesus and identify with his family!
For one girl it was her first night at the Stirring. She got baptized with a hoodie on. When she came out of the water there was still 8 gallons of water on her. Derek and I rang out her hood before she drenched the entire church.
I left a comment on Nate's blog last night just thanking him for calling me up her to do this with him. I love the Stirring. I love baptism. There is no denying what God is doing in the person. They are soaked in his spirit and their new family rejoices with them.

Jesus is alive...

...and he is seen by the world when the people that claim to follow him love each other.
WE LOVE. WE MAKE DISCIPLES. If we could focus on those two things I think this Easter story would make sense to the world. I want to give my life to those two things. Everything else is way down the list. We love God, we love each other, we love the world, and we love the least. Then we teach others to do the same thing.
This is me thinking out loud. I'm trying to make things more simple in my life.
Jesus is alive in you and me!

V-necks and chesthair

like...peanut butter and jelly
like...white on rice
like...stink on poop
a match made in heaven!
like...you fill in the blank...

Much needed update to Rev Rock

Gave a lot of link love.
Split up my Riverside crew, Redding crew, and Random crew.
Side note...there's some people like the Risinger's and Osborne's that feels weird putting in the random crew but it also felt weird keeping them with the Riverside crew.
If I put someone in the wrong camp let me know.
If I left you out and you come here a lot let me know.
Go check out all my new peeps...they're awesome.

Turning over a new leaf

No I did not go outside and pick a leaf off a tree just so I could take a picture in photo booth that would visually capture the idea that I am turning a new leaf in my life. There just happened to be a leaf sitting on my computer desk for some reason...I'm assuming Zeke's doing.
Anyways...I've decided that I'm going to start becoming a blog commenter. I've realized that I still have a lot of Riverside crew that comment up in this piece and I hardly ever get to talk to them so I figured blog comments are the next best thing. Because everyone knows that a comment on your blog is just like hangin' at Starbucks and sharing your heart over an Americano! I'm going to start with commenting back to people that post to my blog. There's a possibility that I will venture into commenting on other blogs but don't bank on it. But just in case you're wondering...I do check in on the Riverside and Redding and Random crew everyday. Keep bloggin'...I'm readin'!

Baptisms

While we celebrate Easter this Sunday we will be baptizing 25 people right in the middle of the room at our gathering...isn't that awesome. Earlier this year the Stirring baptized 25 at someones house. That is really exciting to me. There is a girl at our Life Group that's been following Jesus for 3 weeks and she's gettin' dunked. God is good. I love celebrating new life.
I made an observation about baptism a while ago. I might be the last one to figure this out but I was wondering why we are baptized into the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Then I realized that baptism into the Father is a realization that we are newly born into God's family and he is our Father. We are baptized into the way of living we saw modeled in Jesus. And we are baptized to live that way through the power of the Holy Spirit. What a beautiful symbol and invitation to the world.

Martian Child

Love Cusack. Love that he has his sister in every movie he ever does. Love that this was the first PG movie I've seen in forever.
As the adoptive daddy of two...this movie destroys you. Thought it was great.

Cool responses from last night

I like to cross pollinate my blog with the Stirrings blog. I spend a lot of time posting there so I'll periodically send you over there to spread the love.

Trying to wind down

I got home from the Stirring about an hour ago. Talked with Alyssa and her parents for a little bit. Seemed like they really loved our church. Bob and Gloria are leaving in the morning early. We had a great visit with them. Alyssa just went to bed and asked me, "do you need a little more time to wind down?" I responded with, "yeah, a little."
It's weird but Alyssa knows me too well. Tonight I laid my heart out at the Stirring and she knows I always go into this mode for a while after. My mind is kind of on overdrive and I can't focus too much on conversations. She's learned just to go to bed and let me blog for a little bit and I'll reach wind down mode shortly.
We talked about the Road to Emmaus tonight and how God is walking with us in our disappointments. I shared our story of infertility, adoption, miscarriage, adoption, and now pregnancy. God is awesome. I'll post a link when the podcast comes out. And just in case you're random to my blog and don't follow Jesus I want you to know that God is with you! He never leaves you!
Shalom

Heather hooked Zeke up

Last night we were at Chevy's and Heather Smith hooked up Zeke with this amazing balloon hat. Seriously Heather...no blog yet?
Anyways...Zeke loves it and will be wearing it till the very last balloon pops. Thanks Heather!

Pimp my garage

a

So the inlaws rolled into town and our garage got an extreme home makeover. We broke down the 458 boxes that we had still from our move. Put up hooks to hold extension chords and the ridiculous amount of canvas bags that we had laying around. I was getting anxiety every time I walked out in the garage. Walking over things...feeling claustrophobic. Now our garage looks sweet. Thanks Bob and Gloria...you're awesome!

Busy weekend

Alyssa's parents are coming into town tomorrow night and staying till Monday morning. It will be awesome to see them, we haven't seen them since we moved.
I'm gonna try to sneak out to see the Myriad and Wesley Jensen and friends on Saturday night.
Nate and I are doing a tag team teaching this Sunday at the Stirring. I asked him if we could set up a ring and have him tag me in half way through and I would jump over the ropes like the British Bulldogs. (If you don't know who the British Bulldogs are you are no longer allowed to read my blog...sorry...that's the rules!)
Should be fun...hope it doesn't rain too much...it would be cool to get outside and show the in laws how beautiful Redding is.

What am I letting school do to my son???

This is Zeke and Ava (Nate and Erica's daughter). They are in the same class at school. Today they dressed up like lambs for their class presentation. They put mascara on my sons nose...seriously...what the heck???
Here's the real story though. My son has been working on this presentation at school for months. Every day I ask him what songs he's been learning and what verses they are going to say and he tells me, "I don't want to talk about it dad." (Classic)
I show up today with Alyssa and he is the shortest kid in all of pre-k and they have him standing in the back row behind a girl that is taller than I am! He's peeking out the side though and he yells, "hi mom!" Then he proceeds to sing every word of every song. He says every verse and he does all the hand motions perfectly. I was so proud. Zeke cracks me up. I guess I can handle the privacy at home as long as he's getting it done at school. How can you not love that face?

The two different faces of my daughter

Happy Sof

Not happy Sof

This picture is better than birth control. I think I'm gonna save this one and give it to my kids and the people they choose to date to remind them what kids are like and that they can wait till they're married to have sex!

A recovering cynic

Last night Nate wrapped up our "When God Dreams" series with a message on encouragement. He talked about how Jonathan's armor bearer isn't the focus of the story in I Samuel 14 but how crucial he is to the story. We want to create a culture at the Stirring where people are living out God's dreams and they are encouraged and supported in every way possible. We need those people in our lives that are speaking words of life into us. I shared at the end that Nate has been huge for me in this area. If left to my own thoughts I naturally find the negative and I can be very cynical. I also find that my attitude is shaped by the people I spend the most time with. In moving to Redding I had several conversations with Nate where he spoke hope and encouragement into my life. He brought out the things that God has put inside me and it has changed me into a different person. I want to be that person for others now. I want to be an armor bearer for people in our community. I want to speak God's words of life into people. If you are not a Redding person you should really go here and listen to this last series on line...the teachings are really shaping what we want to become as a church!

I've waited two years for the day...

...when my son could fit into his Weezer shirt. It still doesn't fit too good but who cares...it's Weezer. How cool is this band? Never change their logo...just rockin' the arial font...writin' great songs. Quick poll: Favorite Weezer songs
1. My name is Jonas
2. Only in Dreams (best bass line ever written)
3. Pink Triangle (that was a joke)
Ok...what's your favorite Weezer song?

Seriously...how am I just hearing about this???

N.T. Wright has a new book coming out and I'm just hearing about it now. It comes out in two days. Do yourself a favor and pre order. Here's the tag line...Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection, and the Mission of the church. Can't wait. I've been needing a new book to dive into.

My kids and dog food

I noticed a couple of days ago that Erica is having this same problem with her kids. Both of my kids love dog food. We pull Sofia out of the dish at least 5 times a day. And now Zeke is intrigued by things he's never tried. Today he asked if he could have a dog treat (see pic). My new response is..."sure!" I'm tired of saying no 400 times a day. So he takes a huge chomp out of the treat and gives me this face like, "why in the world did you let me do that?" He tries to play it off but then I see him spit it out and go for his juice. Earlier this morning he wanted to eat a coffee bean. I said, "sure!"
Please hold back all of your Father of the Year nominations...I get embarrassed when people recognize me for my superior parenting skills!
Side note...please don't call CPS on us for my sons forehead. He headbutted the counter yesterday.

Rev Rock needs a face lift

I've been looking at my blog and realizing that I need to spruce it up. I haven't given any link love in forever. I apologize to all of you that should be on my blog roll. I haven't added anyone from Redding...basically I've been slacking. I like the way that wordpress sights look but I have a feeling that they are a lot more work. Any ideas. I could reskin the sight with a new template but I'm not sure that will change very much. Ideas???

This is amazing

Introducing Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber

This is a picture of my son after he took some scissors this morning and decided to cut his bangs off. You can't really tell in the picture but he was a spitting image of Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber

This picture was taken half way through me hacking Zeke's hair off.

This was the final product. He was really happy with me.
This hair cut was in response to Zeke's school. They told us that to keep up with the dress code we had to cut his hair! You know I always respond well to issues like that so I decided to stick it to the man by shaving it all off. It's a non-violent protest. I'm planning on doing a sit-in next week.

Weird floating baby

Now you can check in with weird floating baby on the sidebar of my blog everyday to keep up with our pregnancy! I like to call him Moses...but you probably already knew that! Casey has a weird floating baby on her blog. I had to drop Casey from my reader because I couldn't keep up with the overwhelming amount of blogs she is pumping out :)
Come on Case...you started this whole blog mess...we need more love!

Sabbath

I love that on a weekly basis I see a ton of blogs talking about their Sabbath now. Nate has just started his own blog and he blogged about his Sabbath this week. Everything is new right now so it is taking me a while to find my rhythm with Sabbath. They say the three most stressful times in your life come with 1) You move 2) You get a new job 3) You have a baby. Just in case you're keeping score that is check 1, check 2, check 3 for the Lance family! New friends, new neighbors, new stores, no Trader Joes, (but take heart world...one is coming!), new office, new church, new school for Zeke, no family, new sleeping patterns, new feelings of have no idea what to do with a biological baby that actually comes out of your wife...you get the picture. Along with all this my new Sabbath is Monday...still getting used to that. And I usually shut my phone off but now we don't have a home line. That shouldn't really change anything but now I have this overwhelming sense that the world is going to fall apart and no one is going to be able to get a hold of me. Again I need to remind myself that I am not important! Anyways, I am in process. Yesterday was relaxing...all day with family. Food, wrestling, movies, books and laughs.
I love my new life...it's just taking a while to get used to it!
Thanks for all the love with the pregnant news...it's fun to be able to share your joy with your world!

Prepare for the bomb drop of the century...

are you ready for this???

not yet...

now...

not sure...

here comes the biggest news in the last 7 years of Lance history...

now are you ready???

still not sure...

hold on to your hats and glasses...

Alyssa is PREGNANT!!!! We're having a baby!!!

For those of you that know our story...this is a miracle in every sense of the word. We have struggled with infertility for 7 years.

I remember pleading with God almost 5 years ago for a child and we became parents in a day to Zeke. Last year we brought Sofia home and now I'm gonna be the dad of three...what the heck!! We waited to let people know because we wanted to make sure that everything was ok with the baby. Alyssa is over 4 months along...check out that belly! She is doing amazing. I think it's going to be a boy and if it is his name is Moses! Alyssa is pulling for a girl so we'll see who has the better prayer life. I can't believe we are going to be a family of 5!

God is awesome.

That's all I have to say about that.

Bomb officially detonated!

Wrote a song today

It's been a long time.
Last week I was meeting with the Stirring leadership in the Bethel prayer chapel early in the morning. I watched the sun come up over the mountains and I was reminded that God starts every morning by flooding light into darkness. What a picture of what he is consistently doing in this world. Then I thought of the beating of my heart, reminding me that God is holding everything together. Stuff that is always there but sometimes it just hits you in a huge way. Here's what I wrote.

Cant' hold back the morning

Every morning you arise you flood the earth with light
Reminding us that you will never change
The beating drum within our hearts the rhythm held within your life
Reminding us that you will never change. You will never change

Because when you appear you drive out the fear
And in your light there’s nowhere to hide

Every day the same story Evening can’t hold back the morning
And creation is longing to be bathed in your glory
Everyday the same story Evening can’t hold back the morning
And creation is longing for you

I hope to start recording some things soon. I like how it turned out. It's nice to be writing again.

Things you only see in Redding (part whatever)

Redding local commercials have to be the most hilarious things you've ever seen. We just saw a car commercial that had a guy that painted his face green, wearing a fuzzy green body suit, and a kermit the frog taped to his head jumping around the cars yelling REBATE...REBATE...REBATE.
Hilarious!

Someone needs to revive my blog love

So the Stirring community of bloggers is starting to take off. Go check out the blog roll on the side. It seems like I'm adding people every day. The Riverside crew is in full effect. Why is it that I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to blog? Could it be that I am sick again...that's right folks...I can count on one hand that amount of days I've been well in Redding. Honestly, I don't think that's it. I'm enjoying reading other blogs and sitting back like a proud papa of two really cool blogging communities. I think you should all become friends and then my joy would be complete. I just sounded like the apostle Paul.
Anyways...I'm hoping the fire will come back soon. Keep givin' love to the Rev...you know he always brings the rock!

Sorry for the blog silence

I was at the C3 conference in Dallas and we were super busy. They had a ton of sessions and we spent a lot of time talking about where the Stirring is going. It was a great time. The speakers were really good...T.D. Jakes can throw down. I'm so mad that I didn't take a picture of our sleeping arrangements. Nate and I shared a double bed...it was amazing! He wrapped himself completely in a sheet to avoid any accidental touching. There's a lot of ways to grow close to your staff but I can't think of anything that will do it quicker than sharing a double bed!

Brought my cowboy hat to Texas

So Nate, Patrick, Nate's dad (Dale) and myself are in Texas for a few days at the creative church conference. Felt like we were traveling all stinkin' day. Up at 5am...took off at 7am...2.5 hour layover in Denver with delays...delays on the plane on the way to Dallas...get a rental car...get to the hotel...don't even get out...check in and drive for an hour looking for the church...find it...go through the first session...come home...drop off Nate who's felt like he's gonna puke all day...grab some Burger King...nasty...blog...bed. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.

Dinner with the Gafners

Last night we had Sean and Rebecca and their two little ones (Skylar and Caleb) over for dinner. Sean is the executive chef at Tierra Oaks so Alyssa was having panic attacks about the meal but she knocked it out of the park. Chicken Marsala, rice pilaf, bread and this salad that was amazing. We had a great time. It's nice to start making memories with new people. When you first move to a place it's kind of like summer camp and there's this weird feeling like you'll be headed back home soon. But that feeling is starting to wear off little by little and nights like last night are making it a lot easier. Thanks Gafners!

Something to chew on today...

The church is the single, multi ethnic family promised by the creator God to Abraham. It was brought into being through Israel's Messiah, Jesus; it was energized by god's Spirit; and it was called to bring the transformative news of god's rescuing justice to the whole creation. pg. 200
N.T. Wright (Simply Christian)

Best acting ever

Nate and I snuck out last night for the late showing of There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day Lewis does some of the best acting I've ever seen. He's one of those guys that isn't in a ton of movies but every one he's in is epic. I've seen him in Gangs of New York, Last of the Mohican's, In the name of the father...great in every one. I could talk for a long time about this movie but it needs to be experienced. Any one else see it yet?

Valentines day after post

Bought this CD for Alyssa on Valentines Day...it rules. First song seriously blows my mind. The passion, dynamics and harmonies that come out of two people, an acoustic and a piano are ridiculous. Go see the movie, go buy the soundtrack, it doesn't disappoint.
We went to Tierra Oaks for dinner with 3 other couples and had a great time. Our friend Sean is the executive chief there and he makes amazing food.
I love my wife...she blows my mind. Our first date was on a Valentines day thing our church put together. I was 17 and she was 16. That gives us 14 years of being together. I'm 31 now and I love her more every year that I get to know her. It's amazing that you can know a person better than anyone else in the world and still learn things all the time. I'm a lucky man. I love you Alyssa!

Today was a crazy day

Up at 4am for some reason...come down stairs and start reading the bible. We are talking about new heavens and new earth this week at the Stirring. There is so much to chew off...I can't read fast enough. 7am is prayer with Nate and the advisory team. 8-11am. Nate and I at our weekly Starbucks ritual of caffeine, bible, dreaming, N.T. Wright, questions, journal, talk about Life Groups and sermon. Back to the office...meet with the principal of Cypress elementary school at 3pm...we are raising money with our music, art and film festival to purchase school supplies and basic necessities to kids that live in poverty...the school is pumped. We are starting a long time relationship with this community and school. Painting, making films, designing their school shirts, moving some sheds, sanding some chairs. Lots of needs...can't wait to get started. Then we went to city hall. The mayor and city councilman was there. A teacher from the Stirring created a program with her students to prepare them for the work place...awesome stuff. They are talking about starting the program throughout the county. Came home, dinner with the fam, ichat with mom, movie, bed. What does tomorrow hold?

what the heck?

Yesterday was the first time in a month that my throat felt good. I was so pumped that this thing was ending. Today I woke up and the above pictured part of my throat is killing me. I've got to get this figured out...it's killing me.
Side note: When did my chest hair get so out of control? There is very little distinction between where my beard ends and my chest hair begins.
Side note 2: Yes...that is my Cush shirt that I have been rockin' since 2000. Steve and I have the same shirt and we still wear it. I rock mine almost every morning and when I work out. It's more pink than it is red now but I'm down with pink. At least the neck isn't stretched out. :)
Side note 3: If you don't owe Cush's first album your life is not complete...period!

When leading worship goes extremely wrong

I just posted on the Stirring blog about last night. If you play guitar you will feel my pain...if you don't you'll still realize what an idiot I am. How many times have you done this Adam and Mike?

Osbornes in the house

Trav, Annette and the kiddos came up for a couple of days. Today we went to the snow to go sledding. We had a lot of fun...although both of our kids sound like they have the bubonic plague and Jonah's asthma flared up because of our dog. We found our way around all that and had some great time hanging out. It's always great to hang with the Osborne's and we miss them a ton.

This picture sums up every snow experience we've ever had with Zeke. When you tell him we're going to the snow he will talk about it non-stop for two weeks. When you actually get to the snow he will lay down and cry for 90% of the time. Seriously...the picture says it all. And no...that's not Zeke's powder blue puffy jacket. We forgot his so he's sporting one of Payton's extra jackets!

This last pic is our daughter dressed like the abominable snowman and rockin' the slopes for the first time.

Post number 500!

I've been at the blog thing for about a year and four months now. I'm averaging about a post a day. There's a ridiculous crew in Riverside that blogs now and the Redding crew is just getting started. I'd love to hear who's been comin' around revrock since the beginning and who's new. It's been a fun ride. Posting has been a little more sporadic in Redding but I'm still trying to find my rhythm up here. My blog is kind of random if you haven't picked up on that yet. I post about family, kingdom, sports, music, books, politics, non sense and funny stuff. It's a way for me to decompress my day and stay connected with people. I love the fact that I still have a community in Riverside that I can keep up with through their blogs. Anyways...sound off if you're a Revrock regular. It's party time...500 posts baby!!!

What@@@!!!????

Did anyone see this comin? I already loved watchin' the Suns. Now I don't have to watch Marion launch up those ugly 3's!
And let be just get it out there before I get some Laker fans on here talkin' about Pau Gasol. The Lakers are still horrible...now they just have a real tall, awkward guy in the middle!

Super Tuesday

I'm still voting for Jesus in '08 but I'm thinkin' it would be pretty cool if we didn't have a ding dong in the white house so I'm headin' out to vote. Alyssa and I didn't declare a party when we moved so we can vote in the Democratic primary and the final election. For some reason you have to be registered Republican to vote Republican...doesn't make a lot of since. I'm not giving away who I'm voting for but the name starts with a letter towards the beginning of the alphabet...followed by another word for stone....middle name is the last name of a deceased dictator from the middle east...last name rhymes with yo mama! (No one's figurin' that one out) I got love for other candidates...who you voting for? Is that illegal to share in cyber space? Leave it in code like I did and no one will ever know.

Last night...

...was so much fun at the Stirring. I posted some thoughts here. I was leading worship at the 7 o'clock gathering and we ended with the song, "God of Justice" by Tim Hughes. It was the first time a lot of people had heard the song but they were really diggin' it. We kept the music going and I was singing and all of a sudden I look down and Nate hands his handheld mic to Jake. Nate gives me the keep playing look (you've gotta be a musician to know that look!) Jake starts bustin' into "The enemy has been defeated" by Hillsong. It was amazing. The song had the same chords...he realizes it...the message is perfect with what Nate has been talking about...so he starts leading everyone from the front row...it was awesome!
Then we have this older gentleman that has been coming to the Stirring that gets up to pray. He has been meeting with us about his heart for Ghana. He's from Ghana himself and his prayer was ridiculous. It was one of those times that no one plans for but turns out better than something we could of planned out for 30 years. Great night.

Anyone else having a hard time posting pictures

I've been trying to upload pics on my last three posts and it hasn't let me. Is it a blogger thing or am I doing something wrong?

Going to IKEA vs. poking myself repeatly in the eye with a fork

In retrospect...given the choice now...I'm not sure what I would chose.
It sounded like a good idea. I needed a desk for work and we need a desk at the house.
IKEA is no longer 45 minutes away for us. 2.5 hours down and 2.5 hours back makes for quite a day with the kids and a sick wife. Getting the desks into the car is being written into history right behind the miracle of turning water into wine...it was out of control. There were boxes looming over both of our kids car seats in pretty precarious positions. It was raining...windy...freezing. For some reason we ended getting the kids in and out of the car 37 times. I was so stressed out when we left that I ran through McDonald's and ordered a hot fudge sundae and a large diet coke. I haven't had diet coke or aspartame for 4 or 5 months now. It was crazy...I used to live on diet coke and now it tastes like battery acid! The sundae was amazing though. And those little Swedish meatballs were a little bit of heaven.
We made it home...we have two desks...we have two headaches!

I just threw together a Stirring blog

What do you think? It's total bare bones...no pics...no nothin'. What are some things that you think would be cool for our church's blog? Does anyone want to make it really cool and show me how to do a word press site? That was a huge hint Ian if you weren't picking up on it...but I'm not going to use any names.

Keeping our politics in perspective

Jesus Manifesto is keepin' it real. Great voter guide. I'm goin' with Jesus in '08!

Read this today...wow!

Isaiah 42:1-9

The Lord’s Chosen Servant

1 “Look at my servant, whom I strengthen.
He is my chosen one, who pleases me.
I have put my Spirit upon him.
He will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout
or raise his voice in public.
3 He will not crush the weakest reed
or put out a flickering candle.
He will bring justice to all who have been wronged.
4 He will not falter or lose heart
until justice prevails throughout the earth.
Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.”

5 God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out.
He created the earth and everything in it.
He gives breath to everyone,
life to everyone who walks the earth.
And it is he who says,
6 “I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness.
I will take you by the hand and guard you,
and I will give you to my people, Israel,
as a symbol of my covenant with them.
And you will be a light to guide the nations.
7 You will open the eyes of the blind.
You will free the captives from prison,
releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.

8 “I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to anyone else,
nor share my praise with carved idols.
9 Everything I prophesied has come true,
and now I will prophesy again.
I will tell you the future before it happens.”

We had 21 peeps tonight at Life Group...

...and two didn't show up. I guess I should watch how excited I get when I talk about community...people are taking it seriously! I think our group is going to be rad. People seem excited to go over the Book of Luke. We are going to go through The Voice of Luke which ties in a lot of context and background to the scriptures. We also talked about this last weekend when I shared and thought of ways that we can include the least in our family. I got a tent for the two homeless women I ran into on Monday. We have someone that helps with a free dental clinic at the shelter twice a week that we might be getting involved with, and we are thinking of ways to contribute to our art and film festival that is raising money for Cypress school (an under resourced elementary school in downtown.) Not bad for two meetings together. I'm really excited about the direction our group is heading. I just hope we can fit everyone in our house!

Sabbath

Today was great. I was exhausted from last night and Alyssa let me sleep in...she's awesome. Hung out with the kids till it was time for Zeke to go to school. We went to our weekly Monday lunch at Chipotle. He eats rice with a couple bites of chicken and I usually get a chicken bowl. He spilled his water everywhere which was awesome. I took him to school. Went to work out. The whole time I was working out I saw these to homeless women holding signs outside a McDonalds. As I left I asked them if they'd had lunch...they hadn't...we had some lunch. Dawn and Holly. They were sleeping in a tent. They said it was so cold last night that they woke up this morning with wet shoes that had actually frozen to their feet and they had to pry them off with tent stakes. I asked if there was anything specific they needed and they said a sleeping bag. I told em my buddy TJ is collecting bags for people that need them, so I hooked them up with him. I got two big stinky hugs as I left. Came home...took a nap while Sofia was sleeping...went to pick up Zeke. Made our first trip to the mall to exchange some Christmas stuff. Came home for nachos...We're about to put the kids to bed. It's been a good day of rest. Ready to get at it tomorrow!

Preaching tomorrow

When God dreams is the series we're in. My message in a sentence is...When God dreams he sees everyone in families...especially the least. I'm showing God's plan for family throughout the story...Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the Prophets, the Psalms, Jesus, the early church, Paul, James, and Revelation. Then I'm contrasting God's dream with the American Dream. The question after all that is what would it look like if God's dream for families was a reality in Redding? I've got two questions at the end of the night: 1)Do you have family? 2)Are you inviting others into that family...especially the least?
I'll let you know how it goes. Pray that I have my voice by then!

Good times

So last night we have a gathering at my house with some people that want to get a better understanding of the Stirring community. So Nate (no blog yet???) and his wife Erica (great blog) come over and we have a group of us hangin' out in our living room. For some odd reason we bring up the word placebo in a story. It becomes painfully obvious that Nate does not know what the word means when I call him on it and he says..."oh yeah, like in that song that the band Live sings." Immediately I knew what he was referring to and I said, "actually, that's not even close to what placebo means and things just got weird!" Here's the lyrics to the song. The word is the second word in the second line of the song. I'm pretty sure that's not a placebo!
Nate turned red and I died with laughter. Good times!

Death to Dish Network and Netflix

After four different days and 6 total hours on the phone (refer to earlier post) I am officially cutting Dish Network out of my life. It's been a good relationship for 3.5 years but the breakup has been brutal. You broke me down and you broke my bank. I don't want to just be friends...I prefer just loathing you! This is now how we roll when we watch TV. I turn the couch 90 degrees and we watch full episodes of stuff on our Mac.
And here's my other beef. We had a 4 month relationship with Netflix and has officially crashed and burned. It doesn't hurt as bad because we don't have the history that we had with Dish. For the second time they sent us a DVD that has a huge crack in it. It wouldn't even read that a DVD was in the player...good times.
I'm actually excited about this new season of life. We hate TV anyway. We only watch a couple shows anyways and you can watch most of them on the computer. It's hard when you have kids because you put them down at 8pm and there's no leavin' the house together. And you can only play so much Scrabble and Parcheezee (we don't own either of those...just making a point).
So here's the new plan...prepare yourself...
No more regular TV watching...occasional couch turning TV watching on my 20" Mac screen that won't really show full screen so you're looking at about a 16" screen. No more Net Flix. We are going to Hollywood Video...they have a deal for $15 a month were you can rent 3 movies at a time...bring em back within 5 days and rent 3 more (unlimited rentals a month). I'll tell you how it goes.
This long standing relationship with my TV is something I've been trying to walk away from for a long time. Thanks Dish Network for taking $350 from me and forcing my hand. I already feel better without you.
BTW...As I was in the crescendo of my breakup with Dish I informed them that I was going to tell everyone that I thought would listen that I think they're the worst company on the face of the planet. So there it is world...Death to Dish Network!!!
In retrospect I think it's exactly what Jesus would do :)
I'm a jerk
Now I'm off to pray

First Life Group went great

Just wrapped up our first group and I'm really excited about it. We had no idea what to expect. We had 15 total and 2 that are gonna show up next week. The group is stoked to serve together, and live out what we've been talking about at our Sunday gatherings. I think we are going to go through one of the gospels and I'm gonna supplement a bunch of context from books that talk about the political, social, and economic climate that Jesus entered into in his ministry...if you don't know...I'm a junkie when it comes to that stuff...should be amazing. I'm just excited to start living this out with a group of people. 17 groups started this week plus about 10 that aren't being advertised. I'm sharing on Sunday about God's dream for everyone to have family...especially the least. Can't wait. Hope I have a voice by then!

1000 words

My wife can capture moments like no ones business! This picture sums up life in a house with 4 sick people...good times. Pray for our wellness.

Things you see in Redding (part 3)

This is the bank outside our townhome this afternoon. I couldn't make a snowman or anything but it was still pretty exciting. My kids were lovin' it.

Things you see in Redding (part 2)

Adult admission for a movie ticket (full price, no matinée, no coupon, not a senior, not a student) = $7.25