Underground Update 121609 (Bah Humbug 3)

 Another great night with the youth of crossroads!! I can't believe I get to be apart of this, guys!!
Here is a recap of what went down.

• Big Thanks to Todd and Tracie for coming to help with the night! having you guys come in to lend some hands was great, and very appreciated!
• The Band rocked!! Loved the rendition of Jingle Bells, (with the Crowd and Cameron laugh, lol!)
• It was a nice change-up with Sam doing announcements. Good job man!! Because of you, maybe some one is actually visiting the site and reading this! lol!
• Another great Throwdown with Caleb! Another great snowball fight, this time with Marshmellows!!
• Awesome job by Hannah doing the offering, great job and first go at it!! you rock!
• I can't tell you guys how much this series is blessing me, to teach! Loved getting to hear from the Ghost of Christmas Present, and learning, as Paul says in Philippians 4, "the secret to being content in any circumstance" 

This has been a great ride guys!! join us next week as we finish up Bah Humbug! and finish of the year with some fun!

Goodbye Tweet updates

Since my Tweet updates on this page aren't mine and are instead those of some random guy apparently vernacularly inept to the point of making frequent use of foul language; And I haven't yet figured out how to resolve this problem, Tweet Updates on this page have been disabled.

However- if you would like to know what I'm tweeting please just follow me on twitter.
My twitter tag is christopher84

Have a great week!

week 2: Bah Humbug!

Lovin this series, and the stuff going on every week.
If you missed it here are some of the best things that happens at the Underground Wednesday.

1. More new faces! it's great to meet new people almost every week.

2. Really dug the new tune!! keep em coming guys!

3. We are so blessed to have such a killer volunteer team. you guys rocked Wednesday. the room looked great. Everyone felt welcome. good stuff!

4. I must apologize for thinking it would only take 30 seconds to turn someone into a snowman. What was I thinking?? again, thanks to our Justin, Lindsay and the team for staying on their feet and handling that on the fly.

5. I love seeing new people take the stage and become part of the service. Ashley Carr rocked! She did a great job!

6. I've really enjoyed teached this series, and I think I've gotten just as much out of it as anyone. Loved learning the source of Generosity come from gratitude from the ghost of Christmas Past. Just as Paul did In Phil. 2 when he Listed "Encouragement, Compassion, Tenderness, Comfort, and Sharing." We should make our own list of what God has given us and pass those onto others, giving because Christ gave everything, "Considering being God not something to use to His advantage, but instead became nothing" no better reason than that!

Thanks to everyone who got onboard and made it another great night!
peace

Bah Humbug Roll-In

Hey everyone,
Here is the complete intro video for our current youth series,
built by Justin Eshelman.
Great job man!!

Bah Humbug Roll In from Justin Eshelman on Vimeo.

Underground Update: Wintery Wonderland Edition

Hey everyone,
     Let me start by saying I had an absolutely great time last night at the Underground!!
It was definitely the most fun we've had yet. On that note here are a few of my favorite things that happens last night:

1. great crowd! I was surprised, but really glad to see people came to the Underground despite being out of school and having the threat of inclement weather. We had 44 teens!

2. The band sounded tight! Sam did a great job on the vocals and the band kept together really well. Great job guys!!

3. Caitlin made everyone feel very welcomed from the platform last night!

4. The Snowball fight was absolute chaos!!!....but in a good way! that was a lot of fun.

5. The message was a great one to deliver, as we were introduced to Ebenezer Scrooge. a man so self-centered that he had pushed every one in his life away.

6. hearing Paul's encouragement from Philippians to value other above yourself echoed by the ghost of Marley say  "Mankind is our business"

7. One of the biggest, huge thanks to all the work Jessie and Alayne put into make the Underground look great for the Holidays!! It was so great to have such a cool environment to be in!

Thanks again to everyone who worked so hard to make it a great night!!

Peace,
Pastor Chris 

Back in the Groove

   hey guys,
so after a week off to focus on feeding the hungry, we are set to go at the Underground again with a new series for December  titled in appropriate holiday fashion as "Bah Humbug."
   have you ever noticed that we never view ourselves as being greedy people? I mean if someone refuses to lend us a have when we really need it, we can't believe they are so stingy with their time and recourses. but when it comes to us...well... we're not being greedy... it's just that people need help at such inconvenient times!
     For me it's always when I'm going 100 mph in my life pursuing  my wants and my goals, when someone steps in and asks for a hand. They can't expect me to just stop what I'm doing for them? Right?
Starting wednesday we will meet a guy named Ebenezer Scrooge who isn't greedy. just busy. but who is about to get a visit that will change his view of what really being inconvenienced is. and just maybe He'll see the the greed hidden in the being just busy.

Thanksgiving week.

Hey guys,
this is a quick reminder that we will not have youth on wednesday night.
the main reason being there will be lots of people preparing lots of food for Thursday Thanksgiving day lunch.
If you aren't spending Thanksgiving with your family at home, come spend it here with us!
we will pick back up on Dec. 2nd at the Underground as I kick off a new series on Selfishness, Regret, and Generosity called

Bah Humbug.

See you There,

Chris

Boximus Prime

here is a clip of Sean Fleming ( aka Boximus Prime) at saturdays CTFL tournament!
couldn't blame Christian for running. I would too. as a commenter put it "genuinely frightening."
LOL!

Suit UP!

hey guys,

I forgot to mention one important aspect of being in the Cardboard Tube Fighting League, that needs to be stressed.

suiting up!

armor is an ESSENTIAL part of being an effective cardboard tube wielding ninja.

it can be elaborate:

or not..

and even Robots like these having been known to be exceptional tube wielders:

There will an amazing worth while award awaiting the most well-dressed card board tube fighters

 

See you all Saturday @ 2pm!!

New Series!

New Series Coming in December! from Crossroads Enterprise on Vimeo.



Bah Humbug! starts December 2nd (shh.. don't tell anyone though)

CTFL

Here's some footage of Cardboard Tubes Fighting League battles
This is going to be amazing
Come to the Annex (the underground) Saturday at 2pm for the match
















As it seems, most tournaments get invaded by giant robots. Who knew?

Chasing Checkpoints

     Last night, we talked about this principle that all really great runners, bikers, swimmers, know car racers know. it's one trick behind shaving off that last millisecond that could make the difference between success and failure. the principle is called Chasing Checkpoints.
     If you were there you'd recall we talked about when trying to run the race of life effectively it's important to remember not to just run randomly in the general direction of where you want to end up eventually. But to chase checkpoints! look towards your goal and chase it down, which is way different than what are usually told. we are usually left with the advise "don't do that, Don't go there, Don't hang with them", but we rarely are told instead "do this instead, how about going there, you should hang out with them."
   Paul again and again, across many letters urges us to not just run from evil, but run after goodness.
he says to his apprentice Timothy in one letter

 "Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."


Pursue it. 


don't just casually meander in the general direction of righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
get it in your sights and chase it down! 


This week I pray all of us would keep those things in front of us, and shoot straight towards them with accuracy.


peace.

Underground update. 11/11/09

hey guys,
I've been very uh... unblogatory... on here the past week.
well, I promise more posts this week. anyhoo, here are my faves from last night.

1. The Band sounded great! you guys have been putting tons of hard work into this for a long time, and it's much appreciated!

2. Me doing announcements was a fun change. I hope no one noticed all the "Ummm"'s that I had up there.

3. fun games as always, I love seeing people try to stumble around blindfolded!

4. Volunteers did an amazing job keeping everything together, thanks for the hard work.

5. the Principle of Chasing Checkpoints, was really helpful to every area of life (not just MarioKart, lol)

6. 49 people in the house. the most yet! cool!

one more week of the Amazing Race. don't forget about the knitting night and CTFL!!
much love, later guys

undergound update 11/04/09

hey guys,
Last night we had a great time as we kicked off a new series "Amazing Race"!
Here are some of my favorite things that happened last night.
 

1. new people! we had 45 people in the house.

2. I got to meet the new folks and see some of their first time impressions of the space and the way we do what we do.  love it!

3. New song. "Sounds of Melodies" by Leeland was great!!

4. fantastic roll-in video by Justin. looked great! sounded great! caught the vibe of the series really well!

5. had a great time talking about something that changed the way I see everything, with you guys.
     that our direction, not intention, determine our destination.

talk to you later,
peace out

Knitting, Cardboard Tubes, and Thankfulness

Update from The Underground- November 3, 2009 from Crossroads Enterprise on Vimeo.

Super quick date update #2

Hey Guys,
we had  great time at the first ever movie night on thursday,
we watched Corpse Bride and discovered that one microwave isn't made to heat 20 bags of popcorn! LOL!
any way here is another date to put in your calendar, and this one's just for the girls!

Nov 14 @2pm- girls knitting party, friends, snacks, knitting(if you don't know how, that's cool, come and learn)

that's all for now,

TTYL
Pastor Chris

super duper quick dates post (#1)

Ready....


Set....

Go!!


Oct. 28 @7pm- Movie night, Corpse Bride, bring friends!!

Nov. 21 @2pm- CTFL cardboard tube fighting tournament! tubes provided, armor not provided!
any questions about CTFL visit  http://www.tubeduel.com

Nov. 25 NO UNDERGROUND, getting ready to feed people on Thursday.

whew! that's all for now  :)

Cleaning Out the Closet

hey guys,
   we've been talking a lot about Zombies lately, and as we finish out this series we are going to cover how to protect the thing that our Zombies are most after:

our brain

Psychologists tell us that there are old grooves carved into our brains from decisions we've made and things we've done before, much like old winter coats buried in the back of your closet. and the more we follow those grooves, the more deeply engrained the grooves become.  old messages, old actions, old thoughts from an old life. so, why do we still go there, or think that, or do that?

In Ephesians, Paul urges us to throw off the old former way of life. How do we do that when it's, almost literally, wired into us from years of living the same way?

check out us at the Underground Wednesday night, as we look at how to clean out the closet.

last night's Underground

We had a great time at the Underground last night! I love getting to hang out with friends and have good time and hang and learn about God and life. Here are some of my favorite take-aways from last night.

1. I'm still loving the vibe the new space sets! so comfortable and inviting and relaxed.

2. We had about 12 new faces last night! great to meet some new friends at the Underground. we need to remember to continue to invite new people. Everyone is more than welcome here!

3. We had some new faces on stage as well! Caitlin and Caleb did a fantastic job of welcoming everyone from the stage, and doing the Throwdown! As well as giving our other Roadies a much deserved week off! it's great to have be blessed with enough people that noone has to carry 100% of the load, 100% of the time!

4. I got to mention one of my favorite verses as well as ripped and used one my favorite bits of poetry, as it was ripped and used by Paul (Ephesians 5:14)

5. the band sounded great! and they picked out all my favorite tunes!

Have a fantastic weekend guys. and stop by jointheunderground.com tomorrow for an update of new stuff coming to the Underground!
Peace,
Chris

Blast off!

hey guys,
the launch of the Underground last night went GGRRREEAAT!!
I loved getting to see some faces that I haven't gotten to hang with in a long time, in a brand new environment tailor made for our awesome teens!
    I really liked kicking off this brand new series boiling it  down to the main thing:

What Jesus Christ did for us!

what a great place to start.

Now about this blog. A lot of you guys may be not used to the .Blogspot as a means of connecting,
so let me fill you in on the basics. One of the main reasons I use this is because YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE AN ACCOUNT TO USE IT. if you would like leave a comment on any of these posts you can just click "comment". you don't have to sign up, just comment as "annonymous". but it is always great to leave your name so I know who's talking. some of these posts are video, some are just text but the comments work the same. so be on the lookout for updates, and feel free to take advantage of the ability to leave comments to answer questions I have or post your own.

speaking of which,
here are 2 questions I have:

1. What's your favorite zombie movie and why?

2. in what ways do we sometimes act like zombies every now and then?

keeping it simple.

Just in case all this Zombie stuff gets too complicated, here is a simplified tutorial of everything you need to know:

Zombie Pwnage t-shirt design @ © SplitReason.com

one week away...and counting.

   pressure is on as we get closer to Launching Crossroads new youth initiative (just because I like that word. lol) we've gotten in all lot of what we've been waiting on. and even bigger, there are lot of hands poised to help with great skills to bring to the table. I think that is going to be the best feature of The Underground isn't the incredible look and feel of the environment, isn't the fun and practical messages, isn't the games or the get-togethers that will happen throughout the year.
    it's the talented and helpful people that will be working behind the scenes with the thorough understanding that the most important thing in their life is how they can leverage the short time they've been given to influence others lives in a lasting and positive way.
    So, get ready to have an AWESOME time!!!
Oct 14th @ the annex at 7:00pm.

Zombie getting in the way. (again!)

Moving Along.

hey guys.
Work on the Underground is coming along great.
We got in and began moving stuff out.
So, the room looked like a blank slate this morning,
which gave me a really cool feeling.
there is something about seeing a fresh start, or a completely blank slate that is really exciting.
The possibilities are endless, the potential is limitless, but it's scary too.
because even though all things are possible, not all things are profitable. though we can do anything, it doesn't mean any idea is a good one. one has to be cautious, but not too cautious, either.
it makes me really eager to see the change. I'm so pumped!


It reminds me of a line from the Lord of the Rings,  and Underoath ;)

"It's dangerous business, walking out your front door, Mr. Baggins, you take one step, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no telling where you'll be swept off to"

ZOMBIE ATTACK!

Are you ready?

Coming to The Underground on Oct 14th, we launch with a new series.

Zombie Attack!

We'll talk about zombies, and what they are
but don't worry because we also will have some very practical advise on what to do in case of a zombie attack. and how to keep our precious noggins from becoming a delicious treat for those undead creeps to feed on!

see you there!

let's not be typical.