Matthew Robinson

Two more hilarious people.

Two more awkward people.

Two bigger studs.

I love that James Parsons kid.

But he only likes me. :)

Whom do you need to invite?  Use the Facebook Event.  Use the website.  Just make the ask.

Becuase the worst they can say is no.

Christmas on the Moon.  This Sunday.  5:30 p.m.

…than Christmas trees and Christmas lights.

(Okay, maybe not really.)

But I certainly do love both of those things.  There’s just something about this time of year…

The 10′ Frasier Fur in the middle of my living room still needs ornaments, but this bad boy’s massive and I love it.

And this, this is my most favorite set at The Well that we put up this weekend:

Yesterday was a fun post-Thanksgiving Sunday.  Dean’s message was so clear…a picture, really, of why The Well was planted in the first place.  WHAT a great message.  And WHAT a great sound from Todd Doss.  I love Sundays!

Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad was wonderful.  I’m looking forward to two weeks off and some time down in Tampa coming up soon.

And Christmas On The Moon.  Love it.  Live it.  It’s THIS Sunday! 

Sometimes I really do wish I had a crystal ball.

Or Miss Cleo’s number.

But we’ve all got Jovanna.

Behind the Scenes reveal:  we shoot Starting Point videos about a month out, a month at a time for The Well.  Scripting it all is arduous in the fact that knowing what’s coming has to start from the end and work backwards, but it’s much more efficient to shoot them and get them in the can rather than going solely week to week.

About a month ago Jo offered up her predictions for this weekend’s “big game.”  We may just start a weekly picks segment with her!

Sunday was a lot of fun.  Dean’s illustration with un-in-both hit home, and we saw the a.m. service pumping.  I love the people with which I get to serve.

Monday Funny–this made my day:

It’s test day in the 11:15 College Algebra Class.  Ten minutes in, one of my students, a 4′6″-high pitched voice-very Jewish girl unzips her tote, and completely nonchalantly unfolds her navy Snuggie and puts it on.  I died.  It remained silent in the class.  Bur for some reason at that moment I happened to look up and see the action.

When she was finished, she de-robbed, folded the Snuggie, placed it in her tote, zipped it up, and walked over to hand me the test.  Like it was completely normal and 21 year old college students do this everyday.

Do they?

I’m just ticked I didn’t creep a cell phone pic of her.

Cause that would have made your day!

We keep things simple.

For a reason.

We’re bombarded, constantly, with stuff.  messages.  to-do’s.

We have Sunday gatherings.  And community groups in between.

We ask people to serve.  On Sundays.

And at Godby Football games.  As we give back to our home school.

We collect cans at Thanksgiving.  For people right here.

(End of week reminder, folks: that’s THIS Sunday.  Play.  your.  part)

And at Christmas.  We give the gift of water.  To people out there.

Seriously.  Simple.  It’s what we’re all about.

The site’s up.  Who will you share it with?

We’ll talk more about The Benefit this Sunday.

And Jo put it into words better than I can right now.

But what do you want this Christmas?  What do you want to give this Christmas?

Perhaps:

We had the sex talk yesterday.

The phone call mid-week said “Matthew, I need a ladder.”

“Sure thing,” I replied.  “For what?”

“To talk about sex.”

All I could do was wait and see at that point.

The congregation sang with Dean (though I vowed side stage to never let him lead the music part of worship…these blasts from the 80’s, 90’s and today are all we need), he definitely said “heavy petting” with the glee of a 13 year old, and through it all, it reminded me why I call him my Pastor: the life changing message of Jesus was preached.  That’s what makes Dean tick.  It’s so amazing to watch a friend do and thrive at what he was meant to.  We are a blessed congregation.

It is always fun when Dean and I are on stage together.  The dialague that’s able to continue with what’s on people’s mind is certainly enlightening.

If you’re interested in contributing your own creative work to our soon-to-be-developed Portico Gallery, please do get in contact with intern Sarah Cowart (sarah@thewelltallahassee.com) for all of the details and more information.  Sarah really didn’t know I was springing the sex question on her…her popped out bug eyes made that very clear…at both services.  We love Sarah!

And yes, Jovanna Gomez of Starting Point (and much other) fame did chop her hair off.  It was funny to see the reaction of some that were there when she first appeared on screen.  We love Jo, too!

And these boys.  I just don’t know what to make of them.

I promise, though, it’s not the last time you’ll be seeing them! (And for those of you Shazam-less souls that asked, it was the lead track on Hanson’s Snowed In Christmas album you heard in the background.  Don’t hate.  You used to know all the words to MmmmmmBop too).

Only two Sundays before ChristmasOnTheMoon.com (who do you need to invite)?

And details this week about CleanWaterForChristmas.com are coming.  Check back as we get it all up and running and talk more about the shaping-up-to-be-huge benefit that’s in the works being planned for Thursday night, December 17th.  Mark your calendars if you’re not going home yet.

Sundays at The Well.  LOVE them.

Friday Randoms

• Can’t wait till Sunday.  I can never wait till Sunday.
• Loving the chilly weather.  Please keep it at this temperature more often than not.  Thanks.
• You can control what you say.  But you can’t control what they hear. (Kem Meyer, Less Clutter, Less Noise)
• It’s hard to go anywhere in Tallahassee and not know someone.  Not that I’m awesome and popular or anything, but just visible.  And that carries a ton of responsibility.
• I think we should have mid week breaks every week.
• I don’t know why it seems like more and more students are smoking on college campuses.  Or using the F-word.  It’s epidemic.
• We’ve completely planned out our Christmas on the Moon service.  And it’s going to be unbelievable.  Who do you need to start inviting?
• I took 7 minutes the other day and just strolled the Christmas section at Target.  Don’t hate.  It was the little boost I needed.
• There is a difference between good.  And great.  And Godly.
• I’m looking forward to ‘rents Robinson being here for Thanksgiving.
• And a little North Florida Fair action.

Happy Friday!

Urgent Need.  Like for real, as they say.

Our Sunday Tear Down team at The Well hasn’t shown up to play in recent weeks.

This past Sunday, only two people were there.  To pack up the entire church.  Think moving in and out of three large trailers.  With only four hands.

Can you (man, woman, child, teenager, veteran life liver, guy, girl, whomever!) help this Sunday (and any of the remaining in 2009) with tearing down after the 5:30 p.m. service?

It takes 20 minutes when there’s enough people.

It take 2 hours when there’s only 2.

So feel a tinge of guilt.  And feel convicted.  And SERVE.

We need you.  Seriously.

Please let Lawton Graves (lawton@nomorethirst.org) know you CAN and WILL help.  Not you MIGHT or TRY.  But you CAN and WILL.

I’m praying Lawton’s bomabrded with responses.  And I know our awesome church can pull through.

You can do this.  We can do this.

We need you.  Seriously.

A mighty fortress is our God
A sacred refuge is Your Name
Your Kingdom is unshakable
With You forever we will reign.

Incredible lyrics.  From a band that lead us and sounded incredible.

We talked about War (ugh!  What is it good for…) last night.  Tyler Wigg-Stevenson from the Two Futures Project was a man I met with Dean several months ago in Atlanta.  Dean and Tyler have crossed paths on many occasions in the last year and have become friends, and it was an enlightening message that he spoke to us all.

Here’s the video we showed:

And some lines I jotted down during the sermon:

• “Sometimes it’s the questions people ask you more than the answers they give.”
• “…a change from efficacy to fidelity…”
• “You don’t have to have a relationship with Jesus to be horrified by that…”
• “…and Alexander the Great was conquered by syphilis…and that’s a preview of next week’s Taboo Sex series…”

And these guys…yeah, I have no clue:

There are moments before we go on stage that Dean and I end up standing in the same wing at Godby.  And when we hear our congregation, and we hear their encounters with God, we’re so tangibly reminded of the full weight and responsibility we have in leading.  A weight and responsibility that generates excitement and vision.  It’s an honor to serve.  With my friend, and with you all.  Thank you, Well.

An everlasting truth, in an ever-changing culture.

I hate money.  I’m mean I love money, but I hate dealing with budgets and planning and wants and needs.  And I’ve realized as I’ve gotten a little more experienced at living life that there’s never enough of it.  I made $26,000 my first year teaching.  I lived fine.  I make significantly more than that now, yet it never seems like it’s enough.  It’s not even “mine” anyways!

As we started the Taboo series tonight, I agreed with Dean after he left the stage at the 11:05 service when he said “that was one of my most favorite messages to preach.”  He nailed it.  We’ve never had a “giving” sermon at The Well, and I’ve never heard one like this before.

Dean’s four points near the end:
1. God owns everything. I am just His money manager.
2. My heart always goes where I put God’s money.
3. Heaven, not earth is my home.
4. Giving is the only Antidote to Materialism

have had me thinking since he sent them to me earlier in the week. 

And this description of his was right on:
“Being a Christian means I see needs and I try to meet them in the name of Jesus.”

Fact: the kids at our church are cuter than the kids at your church.  Deal.  We don’t do no Fall Harvest Festival.  We do Hallow-freakin-ween.

Fact: Scott Simmons threw up with three minutes left on the countdown before the 5:30 service and somehow managed to lead us.  Wow.

Fact: I love the song, and have since I first heard that Passion album, Sing to the King.

Fact: I may just bust out the glow sticks next week during our “Well Likes to Rage’ pre and post service techno jam sessions.  Come early and stay late to possibly see.

Fact: During the 11:05 service when the video wall went on the fritz, the wrong slide got loaded above Dean’s head for an upcoming week’s sermon graphic that for about 2 and a half minutes just read “Sex.”  Not sure if it was Freudian.  Or subliminal.  Or just what coincidentally could have been on his mind.  I laughed as we quickly reminded the problem.

And fact: give me a time change and cold weather Fall Sunday any week and I’ll call it a great one!