Outlive your life – Laundry Love

Earlier this year I was asked by Bluefish.TV to tell the story of our Laundry Love Initiative in Red Oak.

A few of their guys came out to the laundromat and interviewed Todd and I about Laundry Love for a video project they were working on with Max Lucado — Outlive Your Life.

The filming actually took place on two separate dates. The first video was the interview with Todd and I — and then the rest of the filming took place on a special Friday Night Laundry Love. Since most of our group was unavailable that night, some friends brought their small group and joined us for the “b-roll footage.”

The book, Outlive Your Life, was released in October — and our story was included as part of the companion DVD small group package.

Not that I expected anything less — but I’m really pleased with the end result.

They did a great job telling the story from an “outsider perspective.”

I’m so thankful to be a part of Red Oak Laundry Love — and love telling the story to others.

When we started the initiative, I was totally unsure as to how it would play out.

Our group was excited in the beginning — but as time went on — fewer and fewer people showed up.

There was also uncertainty on my part about starting something like Laundry Love, knowing in the back of my mind that Laurie and I were seriously considering selling our house and moving.

There was even more uncertainty when the two laundromats we approached said they weren’t interested in helping us.

But I knew there was a need (both for the community and our community group) and so we moved forward with it.

Ultimately, we just picked one of the two laundromats, started showing up to do our laundry and just “happened to pay for other’s laundry along the way.”

And in the end, I believe the owners were excited about the results.

There was no fancy fanfare, no ads, no flyers announcing we’d be there. We just showed up at the same time, every month and cared on whoever we could.

And each and every week — no matter how I felt walking into the Laundromat — I walked out blessed and excited.

We kept the Laundry Love Initiative going for a full year in Red Oak before Laurie and I moved to Forney.

And now I’m dying to get another Laundry Love going in our new community.

I truly believe we’ve been blessed so that we can be a blessing to others.

Here’s to hoping it gets many others interested in starting their own Laundry Love Initiatives or something similar. And here’s to getting another Laundry Love group started in the Forney area ASAP.

Also, I’d be amiss if I didn’t say a huge thank you to Greg Russinger and Charles Lee for their willingness to befriend the under-resourced in their community and to cast the vision that’s led to the creation of 65+ Laundry Love initiatives around the country.

Thanks for all you do guys!

Find out more here or at just4one.org.

Crazy Love

crazylove

I got a copy of a great DVD last week in the mail — Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love.” The DVD is a companion to the book of the same title and is put together as a great resource for small group discussion.

I watched four or five chapters right off the bat and loved the simplicity as well as the quality of the videos. I instantly thought it would be a great resource for our small group in the coming months and I’ve asked all the other community groups at encounter to consider doing the same.

The DVD is broken into 10 chapters, to correlate with the book. In each “chapter” of the DVD, Chan talks about various topics related to the same chapters in the book. The videos then wrap up with several questions for the group to discuss.

Publisher’s Weekly writes about the book:

Chan, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, Calif., offers a radical call for evangelicals to consider and emulate in this debut guide to living crazy for God. Chan’s own life compels him to live with urgency, and with good reason. His mother died giving birth to him, his stepmother died when he was nine, and his dad when he was 12. As a pastor, Chan says that conducting weekly funerals for people younger than himself has likewise sobered him to life’s unexpectedness and frailty. Chan writes with infectious exuberance, challenging Christians to take the Bible seriously. He describes at length the sorry state of lukewarm Christians who strive for a life characterized by control, safety and an absence of suffering. In stark contrast, the book offers real-life accounts of believers who have given all—time, money, health, even their lives—in obedience to Christ’s call.Chan also recounts his own attempts to live crazy by significantly downsizing his home and giving away his resources to the poor.Earnest Christians will find valuable take-home lessons from Chan’s excellent book.

Just the first few “chapters” on the DVD alone had me re-thinking my relationship with God and how lacking it can be. Chan makes the point early on that he realized as a teenager that his prayers really seemed to be lacking – he never really “prayed to anyone.” His prayers were more about rattling off a list of requests than actually talking with someone.

He shared that as he began to read about the God of Scripture (in places like Revelations 4) and saw the mighty power and majesty of God, he began picturing coming before this mighty God each time before he prayed — it suddenly changed his heart, his mind and his thoughts. Suddenly he was no longer just praying out into space, but he was talking to his creator and God.

I’m looking forward to going through this book/DVD with our group and seeing and hearing what they take from it as well. If you’re in the DFW area and want to come join our discussion – let me know! We meet every Saturday at 6 p.m. in Red Oak.

And to get your own copy of the book, Amazon has a copy of the book in paperback, or you can buy the Crazy Love CD/Audio version, Crazy Love Kindle version or Audible.com has the Mp3 version for your portable player.

Or for more information about the book and DVD visit http://crazylovebook.com/ or read other reviews at http://viralbloggers.com/2009/01/crazy-love-interactive-dvd/

Amazing Grace review

Amazing Grace Promo

Another blogger at The Beatitudes Society gave a review of the movie Amazing Grace this week.

Check it out and be sure and check out the movie before its out of theaters.

Update: Purchase the DVD from Amazon.

West Wing Season 6


Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of The West Wing: The Complete Sixth Season for 9th May 2006 priced at $59.98 SRP. Fans can relive the drama as the Bartlett administration enters its last year in the oval office with the release of Season 6. The six-disc collector’s set includes all 22 episodes along with never-before-seen footage from the critically acclaimed sixth season, which garnered five Emmy Award nominations including one for Outstanding Dramatic Series.
Special features include:
C.J.Cregg: From Press Secretary to Chief of Staff, a featurette on the Emmy-winning Allison Janney’s portrayal of C.J. Cregg during her years in the Bartlet Administration.
Easter Egg – A Conversation with John Spencer.
Producer, director, writer, and cast commentary on three episodes, including “King Corn,” “In God We Trust,” and “2162 Votes.”