Since we've been showing some good YouTube clips lately (and I live in California), I thought I'd share this.  This woman has been in the news a lot lately so I'm sure most people have heard it by now, but nevertheless it's still interesting.  Whether you agree with her or not, at least she spoke up for her beliefs while millions were watching and basically gave up her dream of becoming Miss America.   I don't think beauty pageants are the forum for a political debate but glad to see she didn't coward away from the issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XMvviFbkf0

You know this. I know this. But sometimes it's nice to be reminded. 

Here are two nice stories that show real Christians acting like Christ.

The first is a story of a family who adopted a severely disabled and neglected girl. Police found the girl in a roach infested room only three years ago. 

– "Bernie and Diane are humble, unpretentious people who would rather picnic on their deck than eat out. They go to work, go to church, visit with their neighbors, walk their dogs. They don't travel or pursue exotic interests; a vacation for them is hanging out at home with the family. Shy and soft-spoken, they're both slow to anger and, they say, seldom argue.

They had everything they ever wanted, they said. Except for a daughter.

But the more they asked about Danielle, the more they didn't want to know.

She was 8, but functioned as a 2-year-old. She had been left alone in a dank room, ignored for most of her life.

No, she wasn't there at the video arcade; she was in a group home. She wore diapers, couldn't feed herself, couldn't talk. After more than a year in school, she still wouldn't make eye contact or play with other kids.

No one knew, really, what was wrong with her, or what she might be capable of.

"She was everything we didn't want," Bernie said.

But they couldn't forget those aching eyes. " – 

THE GIRL IN THE WINDOW (Great article. And won the Pulitzer Prize this afternoon)

http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article750838.ece 

The second story is about the coach of a Christian High School football team who encouraged his fans to root for the other team. 

– "This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth." –

COACH ASKS FANS TO SUPPORT THE OTHER TEAM

http://digg.com/d1gbkb

I'm still not particularly motivated to blog about religion or the church. But I promised I would continue to blog, so here's another fun Youtube clip that should make you smile: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY 

I've got a lot of these, definitely enough to get us through June.   

I am currently involved in a Los Angeles church plant.  We are having our second annual Easter celebration this weekend and I've found it quite easy to invite people to this event.  People I would never expect are actually interested in going to a church gathering because of Easter.  So this got me thinking:

 - Why is it that people find it acceptable to go to church on Christmas and Easter, but not on a regular basis?

 - Would more people be open to God if the stigmas associated with "church" and "Christians" did not exist?  Where do all those stigmas come from anyway?

 - I wonder what would happen if churches spent less time focusing on money, position, programs and numbers, and more time on reaching out to people, letting them be whoever they want to be?

 - Have Christians been more of the problem rather then the solution?

 - What are the top things that keep people away from church and ultimately God?

Hmmmm, any thoughts? 

The one thing I've learned about JP is that, he'll be back. 

He's a City Business addict. He wants to quit. He just can't. It's easy for him to stop now, because the blog has slowed down and not much is happening. But trust me, when something big happens, he'll start blogging again.

I don't feel sorry for anything I've written. It was all in good fun. And the arrogant leaders up at City Bible needed somebody to mock them.  

I renewed this blog address for another year, precisely because I wasn't ready to quit. So check in from time to time. And if something big happens at City Bible or the City Church, know that we'll be here to comment.  

I always knew my time here would slow down when I had a major life change. It was easy to blog at my old job, because I had my own office and a lot of free time. My current job is really busy and I'm in a cube. It's tough to write tithing jokes, when your boss is closely monitoring your work product. Heh.  

(Side Note: I'm currently writing two blogs for work. My company has several blogs, but mine are by far the most successful. And I want to thank the readers here for my success. If you weren't reading and commenting, I wouldn't have developed the skills that I did. This blog never made me any money, but the experience I got here, helped immensely at my current job. The head of technology at my job recently asked in a meeting why I was so good at blogging. I was like, "mmmm, I have some experience with blogs." So, thank you. Seriously, thank you.)  

Also, ever since Obama won, I stopped feeling the need to mock the Evangelical Community. I feel I got a victory on a much larger scale than I could ever imagine.    

That said, I'll try to be a little more pro-active. And I promise I'll write something once a week. Even if it's Sunday and I'm hungover.   

So, no regrets. And to all the readers, "Keep the Dream Alive"