Robert’s Blog

around 10 years ago the terrell family started a tradition of killing our tv for the month of august. since we were going to be away from home for two weeks during august we decided to move our month without television to september (it seemed against the spirit of the tradition to do without tv [...]

noah is pretty excited about the calculator that pam got him for school this year. it is the simple things in life that add spice.

i love running and i love running races. the race atmosphere is always a lot of fun and very encouraging. part of the reason that pam started running was because she so enjoyed the atmosphere of the road races that i was running in and she wanted to be a part of it. i love [...]

our friend trey turner will be preaching tomorrow night during tapestry’s worship gathering at washington elementary school (6-7:15 pm). trey is a great guy with a huge heart for seeing people come to know JESUS and worship HIM in real ways rather than just being religious. trey has been with tapestry several times before and [...]

i haven’t posted anything yet concerning tapestry’s trip to work with the baltodanos in diriamba, nicaragua. as usual there are many positive things i could write about. the baltodanos are truly working with GOD to do some incredible things. it is an honor to get to be a part of what GOD is doing there. [...]

hey threads (a.k.a those who make up the community of tapestry) one of our own is hurting right now. pete metallo’s mom just passed away. she was sick, more and more things started happening to here, and she finally reached a point where her body just couldn’t manage them anymore. my family and i were [...]

our own john metallo will be preaching at tapestry’s worship gathering tomorrow night at washington elementary school (6-7:15 pm). john senses that GOD may be calling him to some type of pastoral ministry. please make every effort to come to tapestry tomorrow night and support a fellow thread.

20 years ago pam promised to be my wife. i am eternally grateful for august 11, 1990.

for reasons of being in nicaragua and florida i will not be preaching on at tapestry sunday the 15th or 22nd.i’ll miss you guys. the good news is that we have one of our own preaching on the 15th and a friend of many threads preaching on the 22nd. here’s who will be preaching: our [...]

if you ever use microsoft expression web to update a website that also has a wordpress blog on it you should be aware of it asking you if you want it to delete any files that are not a part of the expression website. i tell you this because i was asked such a question [...]

the above photo is a comparison of an original photo and a retouched photo from from the ann taylor website. a former student (thanks lanee) posted an article on her facebook profile from new york magazine concerning above image and a website glitch that accidentally displayed the unretouched photo on the ann taylor item page. [...]

i have posted before about my fascination concerning the journey of earnest shackleton and the endurance. i read everything i can get my hands on and i watch everything i can find concerning the journey. last night i started watching the endurance and was struck by a statement concerning thomas orde-lees made by one of [...]

the gym floor is being redone this week at washington elementary school and therefore we need to move to a new location for the week. so we’ll do what we usually do in such circumstances and turn it into an opportunity for some great time together … WE’LL MOVE TO IVERSON PARK FOR THE NIGHT. [...]

here’s the august prayer email that i send out to those who have graciously volunteered to pray for what we are doing up here in wisconsin. if you are not receiving this and would like to please let me know and i will put you on the list.

RT @CSLewis_: "If we only have the will to walk, then God is pleased with our stumbles." – C. S. Lewis # CHRISTian faith in GOD w/o hope 4 the future of the world has called forth a secular hope 4 the future of the world w/o faith n GOD-Moltmann # i borrowed a film [...]

since the glazes have been gone to alaska for the summer and jodi, joel, and brad have ben graciously filling in for the leadership of tapestry’s music each sunday night i have often been playing percussion. i’m an adequate djembe player with dreams of actually being funky. those of you who were a part of [...]

upgraded and now can't drag images into @TweetDeck. what's up with that?!?!?!?! # don't see this everyday – guy removed his corvette's spare tire so he could load the compartment with beer & i http://twitpic.com/26nq02 # jb-weld/jb-kiwk may right up there with duct tape for its super fixit-ness. # in 4 hours i will know [...]

the family and i went to see “inception” last night and all i can say is “WOW!” i mean really, WOW! all four of us loved it, which is a big deal because it means that pam loved it. this is not the type of move pam normally likes for you see pam doesn’t like [...]

the above wonderful minolta srt-101 is what i just received from my brother. yep that’s the kind of sibling he is – the kind that will send you a free vintage 35mm camera when you put the word out that you are looking for one. its weird because i always remember ken being a selfish [...]

mike penza (along with his wife kaylyn) is one of the people who GOD used to start tapestry. he is now a student at gordon-cromwell seminary in boston. today he pasted a blog post on my facebook profile that he said reminded him of tapestry. here’s part of the post: As I sat here, drinking [...]

noah and i are presently watching “man on wire” concerning philippe petit‘s tightrope walk between the twin towers of the world trade center. it was an amazing feat and the documentary is excellent. i’ve seen it before and i am equally entertained and amazed by it this second time. the thing that i am struck [...]

i posted awhile back about working a directed study concerning moltmann’s theology of the TRINITY as a part of my d.min program. well it kind of back fired on me. since the dean of the d.min program was on vacation at the time i was having trouble getting in touch with him for the purpose [...]

RT @BPGlobalPR: Here's the truth: we got food poisoning from shrimp one time and said, "Let's make sure that never happens again." #bpcares # @edstetzer – excellent discussion today on the exchange. in reply to edstetzer # i seriously just saw a teen walking into a glass window thinking it was an open door! YES! [...]

thanks to neatorama i found this link that compares your writing style to various famous authors. i’m sure it is about as accurate as i am at picking the ncaa basketball tournament winner each year (i always come in second in my tournament bracket pool while never having the final two teams right) but i [...]

@allischoon – because you failed as a 4th of july celebrator :) in reply to allischoon # i really like short films – is there a short film tv channel or something similar? # @joshuajones – you're dead to me! in reply to joshuajones # "it was never easy for me. i was born a [...]

as i posted yesterday clint and eric, friends from baton rouge, are presently visiting the terrell family. clint is a former youth intern and friend and eric is a former student and friend. this morning i was pretty pumped about getting to take them on part of the green circle trail. the green circle is [...]

last week i heard the following statement on the “to the best of our knowledge” podcast: one of the best things we can do for the environment is to fall in love with the place we live. their point was that if you fall in love with where you live you will do a couple [...]

i love short films. they are just a great way to tell a story. if you can tell a good story in a 5 to 20 minutes video then you probably have an excellent grasp of what is really important to the story. there is no room for wasted space. every element has to connect [...]

back from @sptapestry and have eaten supper. now i can either watch "outlaw josey wales" or go for a run. "josey" is winning at the moment. # "not a hard man to track. leaves dead men where ever he goes." "outlaw josey wales" such a great line. # i'm not used to seeing 40 year [...]

yesterday was a really good day. let me detail the wonderful things that happened: i spent the morning at emy j’s studying  the second chapter of james. i ended up meeting a couple of threads and having a great discussion. i took the boys to play a little disc golf and ended up finishing with [...]

@JAuxt – well that stinks because this is prime magical asparagus harvesting time. in reply to JAuxt # @Jake_Rush – thanks jake. i'm still not sure that the issue is resolved but it did last long enough to get me home. which was good. in reply to Jake_Rush # i just sent in @sptapestry 's [...]

this is pretty much what they do the second i finish walking them. when we picked up montana (left) from the basset rescue society they told us that “a tired basset is a good basset” because they tend to get into a lot of trouble if they are not decently worn out. these two aren’t [...]

i just found out that stevens point won the national best of the best water taste test. that’s right stevens point has the best tasting water in the nation for 2010. so there! your water stinks and our water is amazing. here’s the proof. i hope this doesn’t wound some of you non-pointers to the [...]

@JAuxt – well i like you jordan. :) does that mean we have to hate each other now? in reply to JAuxt # OH YES RONDO!!!!!!! #celticswin # @joshcausey – i haven't been paying attention. why plug the pastor's conference? in reply to joshcausey # i guess it is a little sad (or awesome) that [...]

i’ve been training for grandma’s marathon in duluth, mn for about 4 months. i was pretty excited about it because i have been consistently running personal best times with each of the last 4 races i have run. i was convinced that i was going to break 4:30:00 for this marathon. this is not fast [...]

if you are going to be at tapestry’s sunday night worship gathering this week (6/20/2010) it would be really cool if you brought a tea cup or a coffee cup with you.

i just got through talking with a good friend of mine who love nicaragua – in fact jim wallace is the one who introduced me to the baltodanos and first fostered my love for diriamba. it is now possible for us to help build houses for some of the people that we have been building [...]

i spent a little bit of time with a new pastor today. he has come into a church where the old pastor had been there for 25 years and the taken A LOT of vacation over his last 3-4 years. apparently the church members felt like they could never find their minister because when he [...]

as many of you know pam is presently in brazil leading a study abroad course. this means i am briefly playing the single parent role (5 mores days and then she’s back). a part of this is cooking all of our meals. pam is the more creative cook of the two of us. she joined [...]

why do so many ministers brag about breaking the 4th commandment? If you are RC or lutheran you probably consider this the 3rd commandment. # @dannygilliam – i love that the most "unsharped dressed men" ever sang about this. in reply to dannygilliam # RT @BPGlobalPR: Safety is our primary concern. Well, prfits, then safety. [...]

the terrell family eats very well. among her many wonderful attributes pam is an excellent cook. just ask anyone who has ever eaten at our home. my wife knows how to cook and brings a great deal of variety to the terrell family menu. this is yet another reason that i am a very blessed [...]

the police came to our house to get me today. as the father of a 16 year old son the first thoughts that run through my head upon seeing the village of plover police parked in my driveway are not typically good. once they assured me that they were not their to report an accident [...]

first, i love asbo jesus. his cartoons hit so many things on target. like the one above. every now and then as i dream about the future of tapestry i wonder what will happen when/if we have to move our worship gatherings. i love the fact that we meet in rented space and that the [...]

i have a pretty awesome mom and her birthday is today. happy birthday mom!

whoever is doing the fake bp public relations twitter page is hilarious. here’s an example: We’re paying Google a lot of money to make sure you only have access to the best possible info on the oil spill: our info. bpglobalpr

while it is not finalized with nobts yet the syllabus for the supervised self directed study i want to do for my next d.min seminar has been approved by dr. holcomb, the prof who will be supervising my study. i’ll finish up going through the paper work with nobts tomorrow. for now i am pretty [...]

I love going to sleep while it is storming. # using my jambalaya pot make me thankful for friends like @jesslawrence1, @meganckelly , and @joshcausey. today my neighbors are thankful too # religion is the affair of the godless man – karl barth # @theboy1der – i will begin now. i hope things improve. in [...]

many people have had some very nice things to say about tapestry, our faith, and the manner in which we love each other. for example, i once hired an atheist to come in and critique one of our worship gatherings. i wanted to see how she was received, experienced, and understood from one of our [...]

i have never read or heard the back story of the tin man but this short film is incredible. really it’s worth the 20 minutes it will take for you to watch it. i wonder how many people are forced into efficiency because of things placed on them, decided they like that efficiency, and then [...]

here’s the prayer email that i send out to all those praying for tapestry. since my computer crashed last month i am working with an older set of email addresses. if you have not received copy of this email and would like to then please let me know your email address.

for anyone who wishes to take part here’s the link to this week’s google document that i have set up for preparation for this week’s message (the url is http://tiny.cc/james119-21). last week there several threads who helped developed the message and it was kind of cool. thanks for the input guys and girls.

pam and i love our neighbors. we have great neighbors that we really love spending time with. therefore, we thought it would be a fun to have our whole block over to the house for memorial day. thanks to my baton rouge friends giving me a jambalaya pot when i left louisiana i made jambalaya [...]

Robert thinks that when you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite. # @eLP88 or stupidity :) in reply to eLP88 # Devon drove his limo to tapestry tonight http://twitpic.com/1qgdk2 # possibly the best line of LOST "i don't believe in a lot of things, but i do believe in duct [...]

up until a moment ago i was sitting in emy j’s answering a few church related emails and working on my message for sunday night’s worship gathering. that all changed a few moments ago when around forty 1st and 2nd graders walked in for ice cream. the teachers are trying desperately to keep them quite [...]

this week i thought i would try something with the preparation of the message for sunday’s tapestry worship gathering. people already add to the message during sunday evenings. this week i thought i would invite people to participate in the preparation of the message. i’ve created this google document so that everyone can share their [...]

@Keannan5390 – and what is the count in reply to Keannan5390 # i love doing work at emy j's. it often leads to relationship building conversations. i'm love the fact @sptapestry works like this. # anyone done anything like @Qideas at a local church level? i'm considering trying it and would love to learn from [...]

i’ve been running on the plover river trail portion of the green circle trail for years. it is my favorite part of the green circle trail. until this week i had never ridden my bike on it. that has now changed. noah and i love riding on it because there are a couple of great [...]

jan came to the first tapestry worship gathering back in september of 2007. i ignored her for the first two weeks. in my stupidity i had determined that she was a part of our sponsor church, fellowship church in waupaca. in a show of support fellowship met with us for the first two weeks we [...]

adam made pam watch this and then pam made me watch it. it is well worth the 4 minutes it takes to view it. our family has a couple of running jokes concerning west side story so we really loved watching this web-based parody of it.

i’m pretty proud of my cute wife. saturday after 11 weeks of training she ran her first ever 5k race (washington elementary school’s tiger trek race). this is huge. pam has never run before and 11 months ago she had major back surgery. she’s a little disappointed with her time because she didn’t finish within [...]

@alkinnu – that's funny in reply to alkinnu # @labdollegs – yeah for waco! in reply to labdollegs # i hate it when a book is not compelling enough that i desperately want to read it but not awful enough to no longer care about the story. # @stevekmccoy – shine JESUS shine ;) in [...]

tonight i watched the movie “JESUS camp” for at least the third time. the uwsp “students for freethought” showed it at the dreyfus university center’s theater. i wanted to see how they would respond to the documentary. if you have never seen “JESUS camp” i would recommend watching it. it is an interesting look at [...]

@allisonrichmond – how old is your car? with older paid off cars it doesn't make sense to have comprehensive/collision. in reply to allisonrichmond # @theboy1der – hey they might possibly win that game ;) in reply to theboy1der # CHRISTianaudio.com free book of the month – "the hole in our gospel" http://shar.es/mGw39 – WOOHOO! also [...]

the above video is a wonderful little animation concerning an interview that a 12 year old boy with asperger’s syndrome did with his mom. it is wonderful. it made pam cry and made me smile. happy mother’s day.

wow – this is spot on satire of many contemporary/modern worship services. i’ve been to quite a few such services and they are surprising close to this video. the irony is that several people in the ministerial association to which i belong think this is what tapestry is all about. they see tapestry connecting with [...]

first, it snowed this evening in the point area and it is predicted that we may get as much as 1-3” before it is through. i love living in point where spring can change into winter in a matter of minutes. second, i grabbed the boys after they got back home from school and took [...]

i’m not a big fan of the term “branding” when used by churches. i understand what is meant and i am definitely not opposed to churches having good looking logos, fonts, and colors but the term “branding” really rubs me the wrong way. part of the reason for this is the apparent view of “branding” [...]

the above trailer is for the short film “kavi.” it is a student film that ended up being nominated for a 2010 oscar in the short film category. i saw it at the q conference i went to last week and i immediately ordered a screening kit. i’ve already talked to guy over at emy [...]

since mentioning him tonight at @sptapestry the whole family has been discussing how much we miss johnny b. # the mohel circumcised my finger! # i just got the phone call! my bike has come into the shop! i'll go pick it up in a little while! # @meganckelly – you would know how wonderful [...]

i’ll talk about the q conference later. right now i want to talk about the above photo. last night i had the privilege of eating a meal with 3 of the 4 members of the pierce family. the peirces are people that we know from when i was the youth minister at the first baptist [...]

pam and i watched “precious” saturday night and wow. before watching it i wasn’t real sure about it before because i’m not a huge fan of much of the stuff that oprah winfrey outs out – typically they are way too lifetime t.v. moviesh for me. when i put this in our netflix que i [...]

i have got to get some of this. this is definitely the funniest packing tape i have ever seen. i know that’s not saying much but it’s still pretty funny. here’s the wikipedia article on “this is spınal tap” for those that might not get the reference – a.k.a. my mom :) via netorama via [...]

A 2 hour half marathon goal? That's so yesterday. Finished the Oshkosh 1/2 with a new personal best. 1:59:13. # now i'm considering running grandma's marathon (http://bit.ly/9ykP3b). i just think it would be fun to run a race named "grandma's" # i'm going try to running with the group that meets at the @uwstevenspoint track [...]

tapestry seems to be a church of runners. we have a lot of threads who are passionate runners. several of our college students are members of the uwsp cross country and track teams. when i ran the oshkosh half marathon last sunday i ran into three threads who were also running the race. we have [...]

monday a group of point citizens and students started gardening on some land owned by the city. today after a couple of meetings between the group and the mayor that gardening was forcibly ended. you can read the stevens point journal article concerning the matter here. my post here is not to argue for the [...]

i mentioned buying a treak fx 7.2 on my blog http://tinyurl.com/y27672m. just ordered the platinum version. it will be @ shop tuesday :) # Powered by Twitter Tools

i just hung these skateboards in adam & noah’s bathroom. the guys have been pretty proud of the boards they have broken and i thought this was as good of a way as any for displaying the abuse they have put on their boards. i think it looks pretty good and pam has agreed that [...]

pam has convinced me once again to take a ballroom dancing class. we tried this once before and i failed miserably (of course pam did great). i love trying new things. i’m not afraid to experiment with things that i have never done before and i am definitely not afraid to struggle and fail at [...]

here are the book that i have gone through in the last couple of weeks i finished phyllis tickle’s “the great emergence: how CHRISTianity is changing and why” last week and i found it to be a very enjoyable and enlightening book. i went into the book expecting it to be focused primarily on what [...]

i would love to post something fun or insightful but i’ve never done that before so i see no reason to begin now. instead i will simply recommend that you jump over to pam’s blog and read some of her stuff. she has started a series of posts concerning her thoughts on being a “pastor’s [...]

RT @PastorMark: Jesus got out of the grave. You can get out of the house & join us for service. // or we can get out of the church building # i'm looking forward to hearing stories of rez from the people of @sptapestry over the next weeks. the rez changes everything including us. # [...]

via xkcd

pam forwarded this video from new name pictures (an artist community from the hollywood adventist church). i think tapestry and the hollywood church would get along well if for no other reason than we both love potlucking. potlucks are a wonderful physical representation of the spiritual reality of the church existing as the body of [...]

on a lark today i setup a qr code for the tapestry website. in theory you should be able to point your smart phone at this image, scan it with a qr code app and then automatically be taken to the church website.  the problem is that i don’t own a smart phone so i [...]

just a few thoughts on the monday after resurrection sunday. one of the things i love about gathering in a school is that every now and then really random decorations appear. the above photo shows what greeted us at the door this week for tapestry. btw, we meet at washington elementary school which is why [...]

for the past 40 days of lent i have been emailing people a different image from si smith’s wonderful illustrative interpretation of JESU’ time in the wilderness. since it is easter i thought i would share a youtube video of all 40 images. i love these illustrations.

i love a prayer for owen meany on many different levels. one of those levels derives from the quote below. i find that holy week is draining; no matter how many times i have lived through HIS crucifixion is undiminised-i am terrified that, this year, it won’t happen; that, that year, it didn’t. anyone can [...]

@joystweet – i wish it had been breaskfast – chicken biscuits are the best. lunch was good enough though. in reply to joystweet # @allisonrichmond – no food poisoning resulted. just a fun time and a good memory. in reply to allisonrichmond # @mike_shipp – i did and it was good so you enjoyed it [...]

as usual i come away from being with my fellow “threads” more in love with CHRIST and with them. i love being with the people of tapestry. tonight was our second annual tenebrae gathering. thanks to the generosity of guy (the owner of emy j’s coffee) we were able to meet in the garage which [...]

via asbo JESUS.

i’ve mentioned before the 4 things a man has on him at all legal times to solve problems? this is a list that i was taught from my dad and i have changed based on modern life. the list is: a pen a bandaide a knife a calling card/cell phone (this is where the change [...]

the current terrell family (minus adam who is not home right now – darn driving teenagers) debate involves above commercial. pam and noah started debating whether the non-whippet dog is a basset hound or some weird cross breed that just looks like a basset. noah, correctly, says the dog is a really cute basset hound [...]

you should go read this NOW! it is exactly what the title says. it’s the passion of CHRIST detailed like a facebook feed. i first thought it was funny and then i was moved. ht pamela.

i just finished reading a quick post from gabe lyons concerning roxxxy the world’s first sex robot and how many of us view community and conversation. first, i’m sadden to think that some people will be so lonely and/or have such a mixed up/fearful view of relationships that a talking sex robot sounds like a [...]

just in case you are wondering the large hadron collider worked today and we did not experience the apocalypse via a black hole. woohoo! ht netorama.

my dad got a deal on these bikes three years ago and gave them to pam and i. we’ve riden them a little since we moved to wisconsin. unfortunately we never rode them that much because i was busy running and pam doesn’t enjoy riding by herself. since then pam’s back went out, she had [...]

we love wisconsin BUT there are a few restaurants from the south that we miss. some of these are nice restaurants and a few are fast food chains. chick-fil-a is one of the fast food restaurants that we miss. there is only one chick-fil-a in the entire state of wisconsin and that one restaurant is [...]

eric g. called me one day to say “you’ve got to take a photo of the name of this company.” why would someone name their company “triple k”? surely they realized that their is a certain organization that has a really bad reputation that has 3 k’s in its name. at least that was what [...]

just a little reminder for all the “threads” out there. tonight we will celebrate palm sunday and the coming of the kingdom of GOD by eating together during our worship gathering. the whole gathering will be based around a meal we share together and the LORD’s supper. we will do this at our normal time [...]

power went out at @sptapestry tonight (a night that was planned around prayer stations) – it made for a GREAT & SILENT worship gathering. # @joshcausey – actually i think GOD's "good game" is usually a very warm feeling on one cheek. in reply to joshcausey # i'm thrilled to say that @sptapestry will be [...]

i very excited about sunday night (3.28.2010) at tapestry because the whole worship gathering is a potluck. i don’t mean that we are canceling our normal gathering and having a shared meal. nope, we are doing the whole gathering, singing, LORD”s supper, preaching, praying, discussion and all, as a part of a common meal. it’s [...]

for the second year in a row tapestry will be having a tenebrae worship gathering. here’s how i sum up the tenebrae in the bulletin this week. The Tenebrae is an ancient CHRISTian worship service that helps worshipers reflect deeply on the sufferings and death of Christ for us and our salvation. "Tenebrae" means "darkness" [...]

integrity insurance/granger insurance, the insurance company of the man who hit my car last week, has decided to total my car and after their calculations they think it is generous to offer me a grand total of $1,042 for my car or $700 if i keep it. this seems like a complete cheat to me [...]

this week i’ve heard a couple of different people say things about tapestry that have made me smile. one of these was meant as a compliment (though some wouldn’t think so) and the other wasn’t really meant as a compliment but i’m taking it that way because it thrilled me. the only one i’m going [...]

happy pi day! i hope we have pie at tapestry tonight but i'm not in charge of that so i have no say in the matter. still pie would be nice. # every time i try to kiss pam a kid gets in the way. this is getting old! # @joecausey i agree with @meganckelly [...]

way to go pointers! for the 3rd time in seven years the uwsp pointers are the champs for division iii ncaa men’s basketball. the ladies did pretty awesome too, making it to the elite eight.

well this is an interesting graphic. i think i could have predicted most of the areas that would have more churches, guns, and strip clubs (let’s face it, we all knew that one of the regions that would have more strip clubs than anything else would be around las vegas). areas with more bowling alleys? [...]

my undergraduate schooling is in business management and psychology. i remember reading the study the above “show” was based on while studying at the great school of the university of south alabama (go jaguars!!). it’s pretty famous. it’s called the milgram experiment and was meant to study how far people would follow authority when crossing [...]

yesterday i finished listening to just courage: GOD’s great expedition for the restless CHRISTian by gary haugen. i’ve been listening to it on my daily runs for the past few days and it was so interesting that i found myself running a little longer each day just to hear more of the book. i have [...]

pam posted this comic on her facebook profile. i thought i would post it on my blog as a reminder that mid-apiril/early may (depending on the weather)tapestry will baptize all who need to be baptized. we’ll do this in the plover river and make a picnic out of it too. so let’s hope for continued [...]

the above photo is the result of my ride home from the tapestry small group study meeting i’m a part of at emy j’s on monday nights. after the study i stopped by belt’s to bring home some ice cream flurries for the family and then hit the road for the 6 mile journey home. [...]

those who know me know that i don’t care a great deal about clothes. if at a particular moment i am dressed with any style at all it is because pam bought me those clothes. when i decide that something is comfortable and that i like it then i have a tendency to wear it [...]

i always like it when i get to use anything from søren kierkegaard in a sermon :) # @drewcausey – not here – i'm a little jealous because we're still several inches of snow and mud away from discing it. in reply to drewcausey # @dannygilliam – oh i love him too. anything from "celebration [...]

this is a barely connected continuation from my post on being a bad modern baptist. DISCLAIMER #1 – i know next to nothing about the report i am about to mention. like i said in yesterday’s post i’m not a good modern baptist. i don’ know who the current SBC or MWBC presidents are and [...]

i finished so beautiful: divine design for life and the church by leonard sweet yesterday. i have mixed feelings concerning sweet’s writing. he makes some incredible points but he does it by making tons of one line statements that vary from cheesy to brilliant. for example he states that when we de-story something we in [...]

DISCLAIMER #1 – this is a prep-post for another post that i’ll make tomorrow. i figure no one will read this but writing this for me. btw, these posts are going to include several disclaimers. DISCLAIMER #2 – i am an excellent old-time baptist but not a very good modern baptist. here’s what i mean. [...]

i love tilt & shift photography and this video is amazing. you should do yourself a favor and spend 5 minutes on it. i love the miniature look you can create with tilt & shift. even thought is it real life it looks like something you can hold in your hand. ht jason kottke.

I LOVE THE COMMUNITY OF FAITH THAT I AM A PART OF! tapestry is simply the greatest and i love getting to be a part of it. there are so many things that i could say about this but today i’ll just mention two reasons i love tapestry and both of them are personal because [...]

tuesday i finished dan kimball’s book “they like JESUS but not the church: insights from emerging generations." this is not a new book. it’s not old either but it’s not brand new (written in 2007). i bought it a couple of years ago and it has sat on a book case waiting for me to [...]

years ago the terrell household started a birthday tradition of quizzing the birthday kid. pam and i figured that there are some important things that a kid should learn during any given year of life. therefore, on each child’s birthday that child is quizzed to determined whether he know these things or not. if the [...]

this is just cool. that’s all i have to say about that.

i saw a lady in our neighborhood pushing one of these down our street today. that’s right she had placed her cat in a caged off stroller for the purpose of taking the cat on a walk around the block (as a dog owner ethics i will not link to the awful device). while i [...]

yesterday i posted about a discussion that pamela was having with some pastors’ spouses and a tweet that pete wilson had made. today google reader showed that pete wilson had blogged about the article he tweeted concerning. so here’s a link to wilson’s post and the article can be found here. SIDE NOTE – at [...]

i don’t entirely remember how but someone introduced me to the twitter feed of my friend joe causey’s pastor, pete wilson. from twitter i went to his blog which turned out to be a fun read because it has a great variety of depth, randomness, humor, and bragging about his family. this is a combination [...]

i ran the 2010 point bock run today. it was a fun day in which i was able to see quite a few “threads.” i have three things i want to post. first, on a whim i decided to do something i have never done … i ran in costume. one of the things that [...]

@mcschobert – i love the red green show in reply to mcschobert # the CHRISTianaudio.com free book of the month is bonhoeffer's "the cost of discipleship" WOOHOO! http://bit.ly/16K2nR. # @dannygilliam – if this is for the missional seminar look back at the last syllabus. i'm sure the books will basically be the same. in reply [...]

when i am training for a race i run the following times of runs: easy runs – 3 times a week – these are just maintenance miles to build up my weekly mileage. speedwork / hill work – 1 time a week – i run a fartlek or any hills i can find or intervals [...]

belt’s soft serve ice cream opened for the 2010 season today. belt’s is amazing ice cream and it is a stevens point institution. part of the tradition in the point area is that people camp out at belt’s the night before it opens so that they can be first in line when the service windows [...]

here’s the monthly tapestry prayer email that i send out to those who are praying for us. if you do not receive this email and would like to please let me know and i will add you to the list for each month.

  at tapestry each week we loop a series of scripture slides, quote slides, announcement slides, and photos while everyone is talking and drinking coffee before the gathering program starts. i know some design companies sell these and i’m all for designers being able to make a living BUT these slides seem like something that [...]

i used to would have care about this article and audio story as a youth minister. i now care about it as the parent of two teens. it’s an interesting story from npr concerning the teen brain. specifically its slower functioning frontal lobe and what that means for teen behavior. if you are or have [...]

i love rube goldberg machines and this one for ok go’s song “this too shall pass” is amazing. you need to watch it right now.

i had a hard time sleeping last night (probably the coffee at tapestry (i would do decaf if everyone else was cool with it but unfortunately they are not) so i watched “audience of one” off of our netflix que. wow! i love a good documentary and this is one. this is a good one. [...]

pam and i are a couple of weeks behind in watching “lost.” right now i have mixed feelings about how it is going. i am thankful that this will be the last year. i would hate to see it continue going. i’ve been doing more cross country skiing over the past week and i am [...]

preachers post that you shouldn't miss their sermon because its going to be great. i'll be honest here-it won't hurt if you miss tonight :) # i live in a land of heidi's . most of my life i haven't known anyone with the name and now i know many. # why do dentists ask [...]

the answer tonight was definitely half of my share of pizza when i had turned my back. stupid dog. ;)

scott brignac was one of the youth ministry interns at parkview baptist church in baton rouge when i led the youth ministry there. he produces great short films (but ironically rarely ever did such for the youth ministry – yeah, that’s right i’m calling you out scott). right now one of his shorts is among [...]

for the majority of the time that i have been a minister i have prided myself on focusing on not talking “church language.” what i mean by “church language” are all the internal terms and slang that CHRISTians use that communicate to those “in the know” but are often not understood by those that are [...]

i like presentations/sermons that use slides well and I HATE WHEN SLIDES ARE USED POORLY. most people can read faster than you can speak so it make no sense for us to sit there and listen to you say everything that is clearly written on your presentation slides while you add nothing else to the [...]

i love the irony of some commercials. the above audi commercial is one such ironic advertisement. i love the initial points of the commercial – that we have been told to believe certain things: that a certain car will give us meaning, or declare us worthy, etc. even worse we often believe these things that [...]

@thegsides – :) in reply to thegsides # i'm in a room with 14 pastors. anyone want to guess how many have a normal BMI? of course, this is BMI based on my judgment knowing mine. # @calvinb – evangelicals are the same all over – for good or bad. but you haven't guessed :) [...]

as part of tapestry’s lenten experience (a.k.a. our preparation for easter) i am sending out something by email each day. 40 of those “somethings” will be images from si smith’s excellent comic style illustrations concerning JESUS’ time in the wilderness. it is titled “40.” due to the fact that these are copyrighted images that i [...]

i know it's stupid but i am excited that i was able to work a photo of bill gates, miley cyrus and a harp into my message for IV tonight. :) # off to InterVarsitry to see some people i like … and maybe preach a little. # i've got a song I ain't got [...]

i love it when people make something work rather than buying some prepackaged thing that someone else produces. we (the u.s. of a.) tend to be a nation of consumers rather than producers. that’s why i love it when someone or some organization sees something and say to themselves “i can make something of that [...]

beaker was always my favorite part of the muppet show (which i watched religiously). this video is just a little modern bit of the beauty that is beaker. i miss the muppet show. SIDE NOTE – my dad called me today to ask if he could borrow my snow thrower. turns out that mobile, alabama [...]

i thought i would share with you guys what it looks like when eric and i discuss and plan for a tapestry gathering. the above image is our discussion of what to do the week before easter. it all makes sense now, right? SIDE NOTE – i finished “the tangible kingdom ” yesterday and therefore [...]

so last night tapestry met at the terrell home instead of meeting at washinton elementary school. the excuse was the superbowl but the truth is it was more about spending time with each other and loving on each other (case in point we had group of 6-8 that hid out in the “man cave” and [...]

we should soon begin the formal process of incorporating tapestry. a while back i asked a group of threads to help me develop a constitution for tapestry and i have since had several people with knowledge in such matters look it over. since it is pretty much complete now we are able to begin the [...]

i’ve mentioned “this american life” a few times before. i love it. ira glass and all those involved with “”life” do an incredible job of telling stories. i save it in my weekly podcast rotation much like i save my favorite part of a meal to eat last. i want the goodness of “life” to [...]

i have finally given in to devon. i’m not a huge fan of headworn mics. they feel pretty poserish to me. i blame this on the the friends that i used to work with in the parkview church youth ministry suite. they always referred to headworn mics as “dirty pop” mics and therefore i have [...]

a long time ago i taught adam and noah to always remember that commercials are trying to sell you something. part of what i taught them was to shout at commercials “that’s a lie” when you see an obvious commercial claim concerning something that can’t be true. we don’t do it all the time because [...]

just a little reminder that tapestry will get together at the terrell house sunday night for the superbowl.

i’ll explain the above photo in a second – it has nothing to do with what i am about to post. we regularly have guests at tapestry and i have the privilege of taking many of them out for coffee and conversation. i get to learn about their pasts and presents and find out about [...]

the 70s had some of the best car chase scenes ever and i love car chase scenes. the above scene is from the movie bullitt (probably the greatest chase scene ever involving cars). neatorama linked to a page that details the author’s view of the best chase scenes from 70s movies. it’s not a bad list. [...]

thoses of you who know pam know that i definitely married above myself. she’s smart, cute, and GODly. i’m proud to belong to her. i thought i would share with you guys and girls that read this little blog of mine that earlier today pam left for an operation smile project in nicaragua. she has [...]

westboro baptist church is an infected pimple on the name of CHRIST. they are awful and in my opinion embarrass JESUS by claiming to be followers of HIS while joyfully spreading hate all over the place. anyhow i read this article concerning an interesting counter protest in regards to a westboro protest that was happening [...]

way to pull a FAVRE moment brett. :) # @pagitt – he is breat favre afterall in reply to pagitt # @DaddyGriffis – ye of little faith in reply to DaddyGriffis # WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!! # @jordoncooper – not possible because the raiders are AFC and the rule doesn't work for them. in reply to jordoncooper # [...]

i’m almost finished with the tangible kingdom by hugh halter and matt smay and i’ve enjoyed it thus far. i may be enjoying it more because the book was recommended to me from two different people who said they were reminded of tapestry while they were reading it (thanks john & trey). the more i [...]

this is a battle rap produced by planet money explaining the two divergent economic models of hayek versus keynes. in my opinion it’s a great summary. now battle wisely.

i’m not sure why but adam and noah love this thing.

i'm right-handed, so why is it easier for me to read and type with just my left hand? # just renegotiated our bundle with charter cable. i saved $60 and got a dvr in the deal. woohoo! thanks for the comparison bundle at&t. # any of you guys use a lent devotional at your church? [...]

oh how i love c.s. lewis. noah’s middle name comes from “the great one” – i even tried to convince pamela that clive would have been a good first name since it is a sansom family name but she wouldn’t go for it. i think pamela expresses my thoughts best when she says that she [...]

this made me truly laugh out loud. from maneggs.com

last night i finished “flickering pixels" by shane hipps. i first heard shane at the 2009 q ideas conference and he was incredible. his discussion concerning “the medium being the message” in regards to the gospel was enough for me to want to read more. thankfully i didn’t have to buy his book, which i [...]

  or it could be because i don’t want to spend the money on salting the deck for safety reasons.

pam and i just watched a “biography on nbc” episode on ray kroc. it’s sad that a guy can be such a success in business and such a failure/jerk in so much else. overall the episode made me glad that i prefer culvers. if any of you know any dark secrets from the past of [...]

this past week i finished the mid-career workshop of my d.min work. this means i am now halfway through the course work of my degree (of course, i then have to do a dissertation which might take longer than the course work). this workshop was held at the meriatta nobts satellite campus. the campus holds [...]

http://twitpic.com/xzci2 – Why can't Point have one of these? # i had a blast hanging out with @t_alan_lusk and rebecca on the way down to ATL. @drewcausey i had cheese for you but you missed out! # @drewcausey – suuurrreeee. just remember that you missed out on AMAZING cheese. in reply to drewcausey # @drewcausey [...]

i’m posting this mainly for chris perkins. this is a website that list the probably or claimed religious affiliation of comic book superheroes. its pretty fun.

Point's roads are trash right now but I do love the snow. # http://twitpic.com/x2z0i – @calvinb – that makes me smile – "fear of snow" routine, right? this is our driveway and road right now # @thegsides – i don't know. i would have loved it if it hadn't of been so deep in our [...]

i used this video at tapestry sunday night for an intro to the sermon. it looks pretty somber at the beginning but i think it turns it to a positive, grace orientation at the end. may 2010 not be ruled by our regreats.

first, above is the scene from “the mission” that i mentioned tonight at tapestry. it is my hope that 2010 is a year in which we allow JESUS to free us from the garbage we drag around. secondly, i love the threads. after our gathering tonight i had three pretty important conversations with people. these [...]

surfing around for some new slides to display in the loop before tapestry each week (i make a few and i “”acquire” a few every now and then) i found this shirt. it was an idea for a CHRISTmas outreach at table rock fellowship. it made me smile.

woohoo! way to go packers! not as sure what in the world has happened with the saints. # a cold day, emy j's, hot coffee (with cream), and john coltrane are making reading a mediocre class book better. http://twitpic.com/vrf1o # anybody near marietta, ga have a couch they would like to loan me on the [...]

this is my hope for tapestry in 2011-12. never too early to dream! drawing from vladstudio.

an estonian tv program decided to show how the simpsons intro would look like if they were an estonian family. pretty sweet. ht netorama.

if you’re coming to tapestry this week i have a request of you. would you mind bringing something to tapestry that has broken, you’ve broken, or has just been in your way over 2009 and (this is the important part) you would like to get rid of. it needs to be something that you would [...]

the above shows what the terrells and our friends the turners did last night. it is sylvan tubing park in wausau and i would HIGHLY recommend it. $7.50 for your lift tag and equipment and all the tubing you can handle. it was amazing. woohoo!

a thread wrote me a note this week that made my month (possibly my year). the note was really great but i wanted to post the above photo which is a scan of the card the note came with. it is a handmade watercolor made by the person who wrote the note. i just think [...]

a long time ago socks would have been some of the worst CHRISTmas gifts i could have received. invariably i always received a few pairs from my parents but i was never excited about them (sorry mom and dad but i was a kid). it really must be a sad statement concerning my age that [...]

until today i had never experienced a dog audibly farting – i'm not sure my life can be any richer :) # @meganckelly – why would you get a box of dirty rocks? i thought switches and coal were the gift for the bad. in reply to meganckelly # @meganckelly – if you were better [...]

it has been a wonderful CHRISTmas day. i spent the morning and early afternoon with the fam and then we were joined by a few threads for whatever meal comes between lunch and supper (lupper?) and a documentary (“the king of kong” which is a great documentary. i hear some many people say “remember the [...]

so the boys are a sleep, the gifts have been placed out, and pam and i are settling down for a “long winter’s nap.” i thought before i go to bed i would write about our CHRISTmas traditions. we hae some set patterns for CHRISTmas eve and CHRISTmas that have been a part of our [...]

i have no idea what this quote is supposed to mean. it is on the sign of a pub on post road. i would love to know what they are trying to communicate with it. i guess i’ll just have to stop in and ask them. any ideas?

as of today noah is now a 13 year old. what did i ever do that is bad enough to deserve two teenagers? HAPPY BIRATHDAY NOAH! # @KenNichols – we had a 4 point and an 8 point buck in our backyard today so they have grown and apparently multiplied. in reply to KenNichols # [...]

an interesting set of moleskine skethces from paul soupiset via jonny baker.

when it gets as cold as it is right now (3°F at noon) i always struggle with what to wear for running. fleet feet sent out an email today with good suggestions for cold weather running attire. i thought i would share it. you can find more info on fleet feet’s winter gear suggestion page. [...]

after being stranded at the dog park and ruining our family plans to go buy a CHRISTmas tree my car now has a new battery. # @meganckelly – she did in reply to meganckelly # http://twitpic.com/smn8l – my old water bottle has been mia for some time. i just replaced it with this cheap, bad [...]

pam found out that the above photo is what happens when you ask an almost 13 year old and a 15 year old boy to help you decorate gingerbread men. starting from the bottom and going clockwise they are": the gingernator drowning gingerbread man dissected gingerbread man karate gingerbread man picasso gingerbread man there were [...]

today i heard someone use the phrase “fall from grace” in regards to all the stuff going on in the life of the tiger woods family. i don’t really care to write anything about what has happened with tiger & elin woods. i do, however, want to talk about that phrase. “fall from grace” seems [...]

i love running in the snow! as most of you know , i m not a fast runner. i don’t usually beat very many people in the races i enter. i’m thrilled if i’m in the top 50%. therefore, i rarely ever really feel like a runner when i talk about the speed at which [...]

i drink a fair amount of water. i prefer to do this from a waterbottle which is why i usually carry one around with me. i had a perfect steel one that i had gotten off of amazon for $6 last year. about 4 weeks ago it went missing. i’ve looked all over for it [...]

i recently watched “running the sahara,” which is a documentary about three ultramarathonners running across the sahara desert. it really is an impressive accomplishment and a pretty cool documentary but that is not what i want to talk about. instead i want to talked a quote from the movie. toward the end of the documentary [...]

*the above video is a commercial that i think is quite cool. hd cameras sent into near space via balloon. for the fun of it they videoed a vintage chair the whole time. it makes for some amazing images. wait for the end when the balloon pops. *i love my wife, which shouldn’t be a [...]

I just generated my #TweetCloud out of a year of my tweets. Top three words: love, time, tapestry – http://w33.us/2xg9 # mhmmmmm! cold smoked turkey! # @andylickel i've discovered why we haven't been killing any ducks. @pamelaaugust is praying for the ducks when i leave the house. # http://twitpic.com/rzloh – i walked into the house [...]

last night i went to the wisconsin dells with pam for a conference that she was speaking at (yes, i am married to an impressive woman). if you have never heard of “the dells” you need to understand that it is the big vacation spot in the mid-west. tons of large resort hotels with indoor [...]

not really but i did see these two adverts today and they made me chuckle and think a little. neither a can of beans nor a drive by pooping are your typical form of advertising and i am sure that there are some disadvantages in advertisements like this (credibility, etc.) but i personally respect people [...]

@joecausey – ditto what @MicahHaley said – lots of caffeine & sleep. in reply to joecausey # tonight at @sptapestry i mentioned the crimson tide and jan thought i was talking about some kind of drink. :) # @mike_shipp – the best was we had a guest from egypt – i turned asked her & [...]

first, I’M FINISHED WITH MY LAST D.MIN PAPER FOR THE “DOCTRINAL FOUNDATIONS OF MINISTRY” SEMINAR I TOOK! WOOHOO! secondly, i was kind of attacked while running this past saturday. it was by a dog. this kills me because i love dogs. in fact, dogs usually love me. it’s part of my charm. i like dogs [...]

FYI – when having a battle with your 12 yr old remember that cats do not make effective machine guns. violent grenades – YES. guns – no. # @Joshross – not sure. i put my request in early and then have had a couple of people send me an invite. not sure what i actually [...]

it’s my birthday tomorrow but as has been our family tradition for the last 15 years pam and i will be in two different places on my birthday. the ASHA convention is always on my birthday and when i was a youth minister our fall retreat was always on my birthday. it was just the [...]

i’m pretty excited about how tapestry is celebrating CHRISTmas. last year we participated in advent conspiracy. we brought it into the worship gatherings and took up an offering for clean water through living water international. it was a great thing so this year everyone agreed to do it again and push it a little further. [...]

as we discussed at tapestry last week there is some military terminology used within the new testament to describe the life of a follower of CHRIST(ephesians 6:11-20 for example). yet i think many CHRISTians do a really poor job of using these military descriptions in front of non-believers in such a manner that they are [...]

@redheadlindsay don't complain b/c lsu's pockets aren't as deep. of course, even with the interception the outcome would have been the same. in reply to redheadlindsay # I know a lot of my friends don't like the new DCB album because it doesn't translate to easy church music but I really like it. # @theboy1der [...]

curling season began last night! woohoo! we didn’t win but i am on a team with one of the best skips in the league and we lost last night on the last end by one point to one of the other great skips of the league. it was a really good match. it should be [...]

if anyone has lottery prayer mojo i would appreciate you using it over the next 5 months for me & jim & jill to get into the NYC marathon :) # i just found out that there is a guy coming to tapestry who was once a champion dog sledder. how cool is that?!?!?!?!? # [...]

and now for yet another reason i love being a part of tapestry. one of our guy’s life has changed dramatically over the past 18 months (i will call our friend “fred” from now on). he was doing some things that are no longer who he is. a girl that he “hooked up” with over [...]

tonight after a few weeks of talking about it with tapestry we all decided to celebrate CHRISTmas by redirecting the entire church offering during the advent season. every dime that comes into tapestry while we are discussing advent conspiracy will be spent on providing clean water for people in a central american village. none of [...]

oh how i love you my yearly extra hour. falling back is a wonderful thing. why do we ever have to spring forward? springing forward sucks. of course, it also means that it will be dark at 5 p.m. tomorrow and soon 3:45 (yes it gets darks in wisconsin that early when the depths of [...]

@SteenAR – huh? # montana, our female basset hound, just got her head stuck in the litter box cover and ran through the house with it stuck on her body. # @bachriea – i love this idea BUT it might end my marriage also. in reply to bachriea # listening to this week's "this american [...]

jim posted the podcasts that he is presently listening to. i realized it was something i hadn’t done in a while and thought i would do so now. the radio antenna on my car has been broken for a year but i’ve been too lazy to replace it because i basically just listen to podcasts. [...]

i had a great discussion with eric today concerning what type of future we believe GOD has laid out for tapestry. eric was telling me about some things he had gone through at a family member’s church recently that he hoped that tapestry would never be a part of. one of those things was what [...]

i know compressed video classes really are a huge help for some people. i’m pretty amazed by the technology that is being used for the one i was in last week. it really is quite good. the video and audio are more than acceptable. you can see and hear everyone – both the professor and [...]

driving down a lonely road today i actually saw tumbleweed roll in front of me and suddenly felt like i was in a bad western. # thanks mark sanchez for a negative qb score on my fantasy team – NEGATIVE! SHEESH! # Apparently blocks of cheese in a suitcase look suspicious to the TSA because [...]

i’ve started reading “consuming religion” by vincent miller and it is very interesting. miller basically says that modern theology is completely silent on the most important cultural issue of our day – consumerism. this is not a simple “don’t spend money” book but an analysis of a set of values that are competing with CHRISTian [...]

in an hour i leave for my latest d.min seminar at nobts (i have a very early flight) and i can’t sleep. therefore i’m sitting at my computer, watching the sportscenter replay, and thinking how much i love tapestry. it’s always cool to have a guest from another local church visit and say “this was [...]

i haven’t given blood in eight years. i used to do so regularly but going to nicaragua changed all that. according to the red cross going to nicaragua excludes you from giving blood for a period of one year after your visit. since i’ve been going to nicaragua for eight straight years i haven’t been [...]

Mile 5 is past # Mile 10 has been passed # HALFWAY THROUGH! 13.1 miles have been run. # I've completed 20 miles. # FINISHED! # @thegsides – again with the broncos? i'm amazed. # i can't believe it is snowing on october 12th. of course, i have been missing the snow recently so i'm [...]

its tuesday now and the tops of my feet still hurt from running the 2009 chicago marathon on sunday (i have no idea why the tops of my feet would hurt from running 26.2 miles but they do). i figure while they are hurting and i am procrastinating from writing papers for my next d.min [...]

i loved having homemade bread for the LORD's supper tonight! thanks adam for making it. # emy j's has just been invaded by many LOUD people – if i said what gender they were i would be stereotyping BUT you can probably guess :) # @bCodySmith – yeah that trick only works a few times [...]

it may just be me but my opinion is that major league baseball is lousy except in two circumstances: see a game in person the playoffs i do love the experience of watching a game in person. being there is great. it just doesn’t translate to tv at any other time except during the playoffs. [...]

i’m excited because i think tapestry has beaten walmart to starting our CHRISTmas advertising – i’m not completely sure because i don’t know if walmart has started placing out CHRISTmas stuff yet but i don’t think they have. two sundays ago we started talking about advent conspiracy for 2009. i told everyone this week that [...]

ahhhhh! sweater vest weather!!!!! i do love sweater vests!!! warm torso, cool arms! :) # @jesslawrence1 :) in reply to jesslawrence1 # tried to tell a self-deprecating joke last night at tapestry and instead insulted pam. i didn't realize it until told 2 hrs later. smart?!?! # @allimill that would be -2 then in reply [...]

my new running shoes came in from fedex yesterday which is great because i need to put 30 or so miles in on them before running the chicago marathon in them. i also got some new socks for running in. i’ve been developing and rubbing off callouses on the underside of what i believe i [...]

i read an article in runner’s world awhile back that talked about the writer’s love for race day shirts with writing on them. pam and i both thought it was a great thought and therefore i’m trying to come up with a shirt for the chicago marathon – which is a little over 11 days [...]

the point area is surrounded by the green circle trail. the green circle is 30 miles of connected trails and parks that are perfect for walking, running and bike riding in the spring, summer, and late fall and amazing for cross country skiing and snow shoeing in the late fall (if we’re lucky with snow) [...]

Just finished preaching at a church that once was full but has shrunk to 9 people. I'm thankful for the growth of Tapestry. I prefer growth # @bCodySmith – what would be wrong with eating Canes everyday? in reply to bCodySmith # @jesslawrence1 – yeah those were good times in reply to jesslawrence1 # How [...]

@jesslawrence1 – don't you mean infamous? in reply to jesslawrence1 # how can the packers be losing to the bears? really how? this is not how the game is supposed to go. # that's more like it . it ain't over but belief in your offense like that tends to win games. # @nate_ray – [...]

the terrell family went through a pretty major change today – adam acquired his temporary license. this means we have six months of him driving with us and then he moves up to testing for a regular (minor’s) driver’s license. wow, i feel old. SIDE NOTE – i know i haven’t been writing much on [...]

Hanging out at the Riverfront Jazzfest after a fun evening with Tapestry. # and it now appears that noah has swine flu – woohoo! happy labor day! http://twitpic.com/gx7ew # We made s'mores at Tapestry Sunday. Now I'm trying to convince Eric that a flannel graph sermon would be awesome. http://twitpic.com/gz9xr # Now I'm thinking of [...]

Hanging out at the Riverfront Jazzfest after a fun evening with Tapestry. # and it now appears that noah has swine flu – woohoo! happy labor day! http://twitpic.com/gx7ew # We made s'mores at Tapestry Sunday. Now I'm trying to convince Eric that a flannel graph sermon would be awesome. http://twitpic.com/gz9xr # Now I'm thinking of [...]

just thought i would record how cool of a day it has been. here is what the day has involved: i ran the just run half marathon race today and had the fastest finishing time i have had in two years walked my dogs about a mile and a half today – i love walking [...]

I'm not sure if it is a good thing or not that the kids laugh at the video I made for tonight at Tapestry. # @joshuajones – woohoo! in reply to joshuajones # @Jwill193 – i thought you were in a big one already? in reply to Jwill193 # @joshuajones – it's an evening service, [...]

this is the video i used sunday at tapestry to talk a little about all that happened over the summer within tapestry AND my hope that the fall will be even better. honestly, it is not one of the best videos i’ve ever made but it did make my kids smile when i sang “ole” [...]

Just saw this. It is the annual Beloit College "mindset" release. Here it is in full. (The Beloit College Mindset Lists for previous years are available at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ . The current list and a webcast interview with the authors will be posted there at 12:01 a.m.on August 18.)   BELOIT COLLEGE RELEASES MINDSET LIST FOR [...]

@T1545 – that must mean the Summer is over? in reply to T1545 # @eLP88 – make charlie cook for you. he needs to learn his place :) # and for the 3rd night in a row it appears that i will not be able to sleep – woohoo!?!?!? # Involvement in the community is [...]

the point area has the green circle trail and as a runner i am eternally thankful for all the people who established and maintain it. the trails are amazing. it is a nice, soft surface that runs along side the wisconsin and plover rivers. anyhow i love it. SIDE NOTE – i like to get [...]

i haven’t read any of john goldingay’s works and had not heard of him before watching the above short video. yet his quick, concise answers to three questions is enough for me to want to read some of his work. i specifically love his answer to “what is your strategy for love?” answer – “to [...]

RANDOM THOUGHT #1 – in doing some of the required reading for my next d.min seminar, “doctrinal foundstions,” it was cool to run across jurgen moltmann as one of the most significant theologians of the 20th century and then to realize that i’ll be listening to him and stand a good chance of meeting him [...]

say it ain't so brett! i had kept faith in you until this. # thanks to ebay tapestry now has a new projector for cheaper than a new bulb would have cost for our broken one. # @fuelshane -and yet JESUS is probably a linux-guy :) in reply to fuelshane # @joshuajones – what? you [...]

i could make this a long post but i’m not going to. i just thought i would quickly say that good church and good youth ministry often resemble each other. i think you can take a good youth ministry model (not the stupid ra-ra stuff) and use it to make a JESUS loving, life & [...]

i’m not a huge fan of poker. i don’t really have anything against it. i don’t think it is evil or anything like that. it’s just that i prefer hearts. still i love hanging out with threads and we have a fair number of guys in tapestry who love poker. so we’ve started playing poker [...]

one of the things i like the most about tapestry not having a building (besides the obvious one of it constantly reinforcing to everyone that the church is not a building) is the fact that it redefines what some churches call “church work days.” a lot of churches have these. it’s a day were all [...]

I just heard Kansas referred to as the world's largest natural airport. Ha! That's great! # Powered by Twitter Tools

since some of us are in nicaragua this week i thought i would try making a video for the message at tapestry this past sunday. above is the video. i’ll probably change a lot next time but this was at least a starting point.

@Joshross – i'm assuming he was probably a very cool pastor ;) in reply to Joshross # http://twitpic.com/cj06h – these guys talked in the middle of the copp's crosswalk for 20 minutes forcing cars to go around. we were amazed # @MicahHaley – i think i like your gift list better than most of the [...]

since i and 6 other threads will be in nicaragua this coming sunday i thought it would be fun to try something diifferent for this week’s message. i thought it would be cool to do the message via a slightly interactive video message. there are several people who could and would gladly do the message [...]

because of the washington elementary school’s gym floor being refinished tapestry couldn’t meet there tonight. therefore we went to iverson park and talked a little about what GOD has done over the past year. it’s been a pretty huge year for our little group that didn’t exist 11 months ago. so we talked about what [...]

after 18 1/2 hours of driving we're home and i'm going to bed – i hope tapestry was great this past sunday & i can't wait to see everyone # RT @lensweet: True worship stimulates, not just simulates, an experience of God. # i'm sitting on the couch with one of my basset hounds watching [...]

the plan for tapestry this sunday involves you bringing a chair, a rock, and a moment when you experienced GOD.

i have watched my chick-flick limit for the month. # @hubbacm – good shoes and socks. never really been a problem. chaffing is more of an issue. in reply to hubbacm # pam thinks has she taught a tapestry guy how to play poker by saying "you have to know when to hold them, and [...]

one of the things i learned from the boys scout that has helped in planting tapestry was to “be prepared.”  this usually means having a plan and resources and then also having a back up plan and back up resources. this is why we pretty much have two of everything that we use on a [...]

loves the church he is a part of. # I most definitely did use an angel & a demon on my shoulders during tonight's message with Tapestry http://twitpic.com/a6yxr # @GreenMonsterCF – john preached?!?!?!? and i missed it?!?!?!? was it recorded?!?!?!? in reply to GreenMonsterCF # @meganckelly – thanks but blessings from??? a cheesy (but fun) [...]

i know that nobody comes to this blog for music suggestions but i thought i would post the three albums that are currently “floating my boat.” i tend to like folk music that has an edge and a little experimentation in it. so here are the ones that i find myself listening to over and [...]

the boys and i recently watched two cgi animated movies. since their animation method was the same i thought i would use the differences between the two to discuss a belief i see in american evangelicalism’s that our methods will make us meaningful to the culture around us. you see i believe that way too [...]

just a few photos from putting together and delivering the in home care kits that tapestry contributed for hiv/aids victims in africa. the little faith community that we are honored to get to be a part of ended up contributing EIGHT at a cost pf right at $100 each. not bad for a new little [...]

nasa is putting a chip in the mars science laboratory rover (heading to mars in 2011) with everyone’s name in it who desires to be a part of the trip. so at least my name is going to mars. woohoo! you can send you name by going here.

happy birthday woot.com! please, please send me a bag of crap! i just need the dow jones industrial average to end with a “0″ and i will be the proud owner of said bag of crap.

how adam and some of his friends wanted to spend saturday night.

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible -George Burns. # After a great night with Tapestry I'm waiting with the family for the Point fireworks to begin. I love the smell of gunpowder. # @Joshross – "white [...]

yesterday i pulled into the local bp that has 79¢ diet cokes (oh yeah!). when i was entering the store a senior adult lady (i’m guessing around 80) asked if i could help her find her loaner car’s fuel catch release. she said her car was being worked on and she couldn’t figure out how [...]

i never would have imagined it but the stevens point fireworks sunday night had the best finale i have ever seen. after a great evening at tapestry it was a really nice nightcap.

i love my kids. noah spent his "reverse tithe" money on supplies for HIV victims and adam bought grip tape for a kid that drives him nuts # @zmikko – that's funny in reply to zmikko # based on a tweet i just read i am wondering if it is a good thing to be [...]

the danish philosopher sören kierkegaard stated that purity of heart is to will one thing. i believe the above perch, that i caught while preaching at the blba youth camp, was pretty pure in its desire to eat. it is my belief that you have to be a pretty focused fish to attack a lure [...]

wishing my dad in particular, but all the other dad's out there too, a happy father's day – thanks for taking care of us brats! # @johnthemember – thanks & i relax all the time. i guess today i'm relaxing from relaxing too hard :) in reply to johnthemember # here's the link i mentioned [...]

once again i love our church. at this point there aren’t many of us in tapestry that are dads but we wanted to celebrate the few of us who are fathers by doing something that is consistent with who we are. for mother’s day i stole an idea from some of my friends at the [...]

The boys drug me outside to see a Lamborghini in a neighbor's yard – I'm old because all I thought was "expensive driving phallic symbol" # Crap – if only Kevin Garnett had been healthy. Things would have been different against the Celtics. Stupid Lakers. #nbafinals # Noah & I thought it would be fun [...]

first let me state something obvious – cousin’s sandwiches suck. some people around here like them but not a ton of people. of course, as the sign shows it is a lot easier to blame the economy for a shop going out of business than it is to blame one’s business model, product, or self. [...]

with basset hounds it is always easy to determine when something disgusting has died and begun to rot in your yard. if the bassets are joyously rolling in it then it is probably a smell that you do not want to be near or have on them when they come back into the house. sorry [...]

Apparently while describing Pam's back injury at Tapestry tonight I said it was surgery on her cervix … which is obviously not on her back # There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people – Thomas Jefferson # @redheadlindsay – have you read any vonnegut? i just started on him this [...]

apparently my mom is let down because i haven’t posted that pam’s surgery was a success and she is back home (which i don’t understand because i called them). so here is the report. pam’s surgery went well. she now has a long recovery period. she should be able to go to work in two-three [...]

since i’m posting videos that make me laugh i should probably post this hammer time video by a&e also. it’s a promo and therefore not as much fun but i still would have loved to have been in the store when it happened. SIDE NOTE – thanks to brad’s comment concerning the type on the [...]

today is my mom’s birthday. she’s a great lady – if for no other reason than she continues to put up with my dad – and a wonderful mom and grandmother. happy birthday mom.

we have some nice ladies coming to stevens point this saturday to help spread a little more word concerning tapestry. they will be placing hundreds of door hangers in a couple of neighborhoods. the point is to spread word about tapestry, a ttu clinic we are doing in august, and a block party we will [...]

i thought i would share these two photos from last night at tapestry. the first is the cover of brad’s music tabs notebook. made me laugh to see tom selleck on it. the second is from the spontaneous game of wiffle ball that started after everything had been taken down and put up from last [...]

tonight at tapestry i was telling everyone about pam’s back injury and the pending surgery. before i go any further i need to say that i am tired. as a result my mind isn’t working properly. now back to the story. i started to describe where the surgery was going to be. i told everyone [...]

@johnthemember – yep it is a hat of many purposes. i love my 15 year old hat. in reply to johnthemember # @meganckelly – then i will just have to keep them coming. of course, no one has ever commented on whether they agree or not. in reply to meganckelly # taking Adam to school [...]

i posted concerning this yesterday but i took pam to her neurosurgeon, dr. rado, today and things have changed rapidly. pam’s neurosurgeon rushed her in today because it was his opinion that she should not be experiencing as much pain as she has been. the last time he saw her was in february and he [...]

today is actually my dad’s birthday. he is a great dad and therefore deserves a wonderful b’day. happy birthday you old fart.

i thought i would update you guys on pam and her back. pam made it home from brazil and the combination of travel and the plane ride tore her back up. around friday of last week the pain became so bad that she was reduced to laying on her side. we’ve gone back to the [...]

two things that i love watching: several different “threads” doing incredibly significant acts of love and service that they noticed on their own. i can’t tell you the specifics but i can say they are just plain cool. i love being a part of this church. will ferrell on “man vs. wild” – that was [...]

saturday i was a part of the most interesting board meeting i’ve ever been in. part of this is because i love the organisation. it is touched twice united. obviously i believe in ttu’s mission since i am on the board and since tapestry is going to be leading a ttu clinic in august. i [...]

grilled vegetables are one of the best things ever – just finished some grilled sweet corn. mhmmmmm. corn was meant to be put over fire! # sitting at emy j’s drinking coffee and @natalieglaze just described beth moore as “super CHRISTian woman” and jim elliot as “mr. saint.” :) # @calvinb – which is why [...]

i could never do this because, as anyone who knows me can tell you, i have really weak shins. it’s a curse. SIDE NOTE – i promise that i actually know when my dad’s birthday is. a couple of years ago i went through two years of forgetting to call my parent’s on their birthdays. [...]

this is great. instead of a normal wedding video these videographers make a wedding music video for you (i’m assuming this is along side a typical video of the actual event). this is great.

pam is back from brazil so life is back to normal. ah normality. it is wonderful. SIDE NOTE – i am ready for the cavs to loose to the magic. i’m just getting a little tired of the lebron love-fest. i think some of the commentators should just go ahead and kiss lebron james on [...]

for some reason my “now reading” plugin is no longer working with my wordpress install. therefore i’ll just post about what i am reading until i find a plugin that works for me (if you have a recommendation i’ll gladly take it). so here goes the recent and current ones: “surprised by hope” by n.t. [...]

most of y’all have probably seen this already but i thought i would post it for anyone who hasn’t. pam is in brazil presently working through things to lead a study abroad there next summer. here’s her update on how things are going. A quick note. My converter is not working (blew a fuse and [...]

ratterrell’s geek chart geek chart maps out your online social content and displays it. apparently i am much more prolific on my blog and twitter than anything else. i think when they add facebook the leading percentage will change. this is because of the fact that everything i do online links back to my facebook [...]

lIt’s kind of sad but I’m really ready for 24 to be over now. It was good the first 4 years and then I watched out of habit. Bye Jake. #24. # I can’t believe I forgot to read Dave Barry’s #24 live blog updates this season. What a waste. # i was just congratulated [...]

thought this was funny considering my last post. i had a conversation with someone today concerning hostas. the person i had the conversation with is an amazing gardener. i on the other hand am just a person trying to have a decently respectable yard – and i’m pretty much failing at that goal. anyhow in [...]

there is a big temptation for ministers to determine their value based on how busy our schedule is. if you hang out with ministers enough you’ll hear it. someone will say something about a t.v. show, movie, or book of fiction (these are just examples) and soon one of the ministers will respond with “i’m [...]

this post from stuff CHRISTians like is great. it is concerning the tendency of college students to put their faith in a “lock box” during their university years. the advice prodigal john gives to students is: GOD is not trying to ruin your college experience. your parents’ faith won’t sustain you. college is not forever. [...]

as many of you know the terrell familly lives in a late 70s two-story split-level house. i mention late 70s in the description because we have been dealing with some of the decorating decisions from that era. slowly but surely we are bringing the house into the 21st century. one of the projects that will [...]

tapestry worship involves group participation. that’s just the way we do things. last night i was talking from matthew 22 concerning JESUS’s statement to “give to caesar what is caesar’s, and to GOD what is GOD’s.” since JESUS’s point in this passage is that scripture states we have GOD’s image “stamped” on us just as [...]

okay – i’m sold on dropbox. 2 gb of free webspace and synchronizes any computers i have linked to it. perfect for keeping tapestry files the same on the desktop and laptop. it works real well for me working on a file that will be used at one of our sunday evening gatherings and automatically [...]

real thankful for my mom and for the mom of my kids. # @dhaltom7 – swine flu? or as i like to call it “bacon flu”? # http://twitpic.com/4xl0m – Mother’s Day Lunch at El Mezcal – Yes, I know how to treat my lady right. # After a great evening with Tapestry I am now [...]

i love presentation zen. it consistently has great info on making good presentations – which has a lot in common with preaching. today they posted on “ted style presentations.” it’s a good post. my favourite part is the detail of the “ted commandments”. the “commandments” are obvious within most all the presentations (which i think [...]

i promise i’m trying not to ease-drop in on anyone’s conversation but the young lady at the table next to me is verbally puking on the young man at her table concerning the science of reflexology. poor guy can’t get a word in edge-wise even if he wanted to. of course, i don’t think he [...]

as a church planter i am always looking for ways to do things without a traditional office. it is all the better when these methods don’t cost a great deal. tapestry is presently working on incorporating and part of the process involves developing a constitution. i9′ve asked several other churches if i could look at [...]

just a few meaningless thoughts “frazier” is one of the greatest shows ever. it’s up there with seinfeld in my book. my brief, non-spoiler description of tonight’s “lost” season finale – boring first hour that was made up for in the second hour. makes me excited about the last season next year. i’ve swapped to [...]

hilary is one of the ladies that leads music at tapestry‘s worship gatherings. she is also a student at uwsp and was taking a mass communication course this past semester. as a part of that course she and a fellow student decided to do their main class project on the development of tapestry. the above [...]

last night we had an arts & crafts table at tapestry. at least that’s the way a 7 year old girl who was there described it. i was ending our discussion on resurrection and talking about my belief that the resurrection means that what we do now matters for eternity. to use a line from [...]

this is the pre-video that we showed at washington elementary (where we normal gather) before moving over to iverson park for the actual baptism. i’ve tacked jackie’s baptism on the the rear of the video.

Happy Star Wars day # Went to Noah’s game to play the role of the supportive dad and was instead was pulled into umping first base. I had to call my own son out. # http://twitpic.com/4krvk – Jackie’s baptism last night – an awesome first baptism for Tapestry. # @johnthemember – great book. really great [...]

today i had a great conversation with a thread concerning seeing GOD do things. this person, who is a great person, has recently expressed how he sometimes has doubts about GOD’s existence and wishes that he could see GOD do things “like everyone else.” well the discussion started off around welcoming him to the club [...]

here’s this month’s prayer email. if you don’t already receive this and would like to do so please let me know.

i am ashamed to admit this but i actually like watching “the real housewives of new york.” i know. just when you thought you couldn’t think any lower of me i have to go and admit something that lowers your opinion of me even more. it’s a dumb show and i know it. there is [...]

i’m not usually in the business of selling people’s products for them but this was a good deal and i thought i would pass it on. as a nomadic church (a church without a building) tapestry is always in need of sturdy cases for things. right now i need two cases for the the projectors [...]

i went to copp’s grocery store yesterday to buy food and drinks for the party after jackie’s baptism. while i was in the soft drink aisle a little, old lady starting randomly talking to me (i would guess she was around 80). she commented on how many soft drinks i was buying. i told her [...]

last night was another first for tapestry … our first baptism. jackie became a CHRIST follower in november. since we were going to do a river baptism it took until now for the water to get warm enough for this southern boy to handle it. all the wisconsin people were okay with the cold water [...]

Heading to the Appleton airport to go to Austin and Q. # On the plane finally. # I made it onto my connecting flight by the slightest of margins. Now to Austin. # Finally in Austin. # ??? B??r2(:??a:H^???t???0?????????3?~???axyN??Y?fz]f??n2??.??ewY0f??????.???9?m?? s??~?At??(&?] *:?^?A??($.??g??>F?????(????p’?.?? # Just heard a great report from tonight’s Tapestry, Mike’s sermon, and the awesomeness [...]

so i got back yesterday (1:15 am) from austin, texas and Q. i starting taking care of tapestry things yesterday and while i’m doing some of the same today i do at least feel like i have enough time to put down some of my thoughts concerning the conference. so here goes: positive – the [...]

i’m presently in austin waiting for the q conference to begin tomorrow morning. i left this morning and rushed through the minneapolis airport to just barely make my connecting flight – i literally had to get someone to unlock the door and get a counter worker to check me in because everyone else had already [...]

http://twitpic.com/3kthy – trivia 2009 at the Terrell house # @Bradismename – it i, it’s tiring but fun. in reply to Bradismename # just went from nailing questions to majorly failing #trivia40 # @Bradismename – it is, it’s tiring but fun. # RT @edstetzer: Msg: Mark Twain: church is “good people standing in front of good [...]

does anyone have any experience with cocktail drum kits? i am considering one for tapestry. sarah, our drummer, has been playing the djembe for tapestry and has been doing a great job. we’ve been talking about moving up to a drum kit for a fuller sound but portability, band size, and the feel of a [...]

hey guys & gals would read this blog. if you have a moment i would appreciate your prayers for my aunt lynn. she’s my dad’s only sister and is a pretty cool aunt. right now she is dealing with the possibility of liver cancer and will be receiving the final testresults monday. my family and [...]

it really “floats my boat” to think that all those soccer fans are singing “by GOD” when they sing ole`. also i would like to add that ryan hall is the real deal. ht adam via andy SIDE NOTE – i’m not sure if i know anybody in austin, texas or if anyone from there [...]

yesterday i tweeted that i was at the hope center painting with a wonderful group of threads (aka people from tapestry). a friend from nobts tweeted back that tapestry sounds like a really cool group. it makes me proud to be associated with them. i was proud before my friend pointed out how cool all [...]

at tapestry on sundays we have a journaling station set up in the back of the room for people to write down their thoughts, prayers, etc. concerning what has happened. last week i was pretty excited to find the above printed in the journal. i wasn’t excited because i was the one speaking on the [...]

i have several things that i want to post about but i’m pretty tired at the moment. therefore, i’ll put a few blurbs up and see if they turn into anything longer. we participated in trivia weekend this past week. stevens point hosts the world’s largest trivia competition. 54 straight hours of trivia, 417 teams, [...]

celebrating Resurrection day by painting and eating at the Hope Center. # Very thankful that people danced tonight at Tapestry – No parking baby! No parking on the dance floor! # http://twitpic.com/3a1ky – film & theology ’09 4.21 – Showing of “Slumdog Millionaire” with faith discussion of the film’s message after … # @allimill – [...]

i had a close encounter with one of our backyard deer this afternoon. i was by our squirrel feeder loading it with more corn when out of the corner of my eye i saw a shape moving toward me fast. i turned around to see a deer about 10′ away from me running at full [...]

not much to say today (but when has that ever kept me from saying something?). therefore, i’m posting a few random things from today. great time starting the day off with coffee with perry and john from fellowship church in chippewa falls. great guys. i always learn a ton hanging with these guys. to celebrate [...]

i’m pretty excited because i am now two weeks away from going to q 2009. it is going to be great.

last night while pam and i were reading in bed (our nightly prep for sleeping) she rolled over and said “thanks for leading the most meaningful easter day i have ever been a part of.” so basically i couldn’t sleep very well after that. as a pastor that’s the kind of thing you want to [...]

how did you celebrate easter today? the threads at tapestry celebrated by painting and feeding at the hope center in the morning and then dancing at washington elementary this evening. it made for a wonderful day. i hope your resurrection day was amazing.

just had a brief freak out moment when I looked at all the upcoming Tapestry events – thankfully they are all on mission. # @johnthemember – slumdog – loved it. # invited Joel to our small group saying “don’t worry it’s not just for couples.” His response, “don’t worry I can find a date.” Made [...]

not sure why but this morning seems to have been a grumpy old man day for me. things that don’t normally bother me at all have been driving me nuts. it’s just a grumpy, old man kind of day. they happen every now and then. hopefully, pam and the boy’s would say that they don’t [...]

here’s the tenebrae program from tonight. it was a cool evening. it’s a very simple service that involved a good number of people to do it. i think the most meaningful part of the gathering for me was actually the room in which we held it. as a church we continually talk about the church [...]

it looks a little like this. 18 people showed up at the salvation army hope center to paint yesterday. not bad for a church that is averaging around 40 at the moment. we actually had more people than we had work – which means that we will have to find a lot more things to [...]

just register for the 2009 chicago marathon with jim, my brother-in-law. this will be great. i love running in races with jim and jill (though jill won’t be running this race). they are just great people to hang with and a lot of fun at a race. on top of this i need something to [...]

just a little reminder for all my fellows tapestronians (the name that i presently like the best for those who are a part of tapestry because it reminds me of pasta – sorry i don’t know who started this so i don’t know who to give credit to). the goal for this month is to [...]

i was typing the announcements for tapestry tonight and i had a brief freak out moment. the reason was that there are a lot of things going on in tapestry right now. i freaked out because i worry about us getting too busy with activities. it is far too easy within the church culture to [...]

off to Greenville, Wisconsin to join Cornerstone Church’s worship for the morning. # visitin other churches is nice but coming back to Tapestry is better – looking forward to seeing everyone in a little while. # @johnthemember – thanks for coming tonight. would have loved you coming over for dinner. we’ll just have to do [...]

pam and i went remodeling shopping tonight. we are looking into remodeling adam and noah’s bathroom. while we were walking down the aisles of menards an amish male challenged me to shopping cart chicken. actually he was walking down a side aisle about to join the main one that pam and i were walking down. [...]

i worked out the final plans for painting with lisa, the salvation army hope center administrator. we (tapestry) will be painting tuesday (during the day and late afternoon), saturday (late morning through early afternoon) and sunday morning (early morning till lunch). so this means that we will begin our easter celebration on easter sunday morning [...]

the above image is my very simple design for a wall we can write on in tapestry over the next four weeks. the idea is that we will have places to write & draw examples of life defeating death. i want something that has some solidness to it. i had thought about using easels and [...]

i spend a lot of time in local businesses. the first reason for this is that i believe in supporting local businesses, the second reason is because they are a great resource for knowing the point area, and the final reason is because i hope that through building relationships with some of these business owners [...]

i just got fooled by sojo.net. i get the sojourner’s email updates. i probably lean a little left of center but i still don’t always agree with everything that jim wallis and sojourners say. anyhow, the email today indicated that rush limbaugh was going to be delivering a keynote address at sojo’s mobilization to end [...]

i’ve posted before about the gobo sign that tapestry uses for outside identification when daylight savings time is not in practice. now that daylight savings time is happening we don’t need the gobo outside (because it obviously won’t work in the daylight) so it has been given a new home that i like. it is [...]

We’re home. Good night. # I sitting second in my bracket right now, but I think everything it about to fall apart. # last words of my sermon at Tapestry tonight … “JESUS tells a story about .. HOLY CRAP! … I’ll stop now” # @ppolnaszek – i thought that was fellowship? in reply to [...]

this afternoon while meeting with a couple who have been coming to tapestry for a month i was reminded of the need for CHRISTians to try GOD-sized things. brent and rachel moved to stevens point from around chicago. there they were a part of the chapel and worked within the chapel’s domestic missions. we were [...]

i became facebook friends with a guy who visited tapestry this past week. he seems to be a pretty nice guy. anyhow looking on his wall on monday he made a statement concerning visiting a “radical church” which i am going to assume is tapestry (i have no way of knowing how many churches he [...]

Perry Describes TTU from Robert Terrell on Vimeo. disclaimer – i’m on the board of touched twice united so my opinion is slightly biased – of course, it is actually one of the most amazing opportunities you and your church will ever have. ok, i’ve done my disclaimer now i can speak freely. TOUCHED TWICE [...]

i’m pretty pumped about two conferences that i will be going to this year. the two conferences are: q 2009 – april 27-29 – q is an intriguing way to do a convention. get a lot of great presenters to address some of the most amazing questions of our present situation. then encourage as much [...]

besides seeing my family in alabama the best part of heading down south is the food. i prefer so much of wisconsin over the south. i would rather have a supper cold & dry winter than i terribly hot and humid summer. i would rather go fishing on rivers that require canoes than boats. i [...]

@dhaltom7 – he was a drunk good for nothing war criminal ;) in reply to dhaltom7 # We’re about to go eat at Cane’s – I love Wisconsin but I do wish we had a Raisin Cane’s in Point. # @dhaltom7 – probably. in reply to dhaltom7 # Cane’s = happy kids # @meganckelly – [...]

a list of statements that stood out today in the church planting leadership d.min seminar i am presently in. these are not necessarily states that i agreed or disagreed with. they are just statements that stood out as if audiologically highlighted when they were said: guys it’s not let’s throw mud on the bride time [...]

pam invented the greatest phrase today. the phrase is “she’s a red squirrel.” it happened this way. we love the squirrels in wisconsin. we have HUGE gray squirrels, which almost ever place has, but in addition to the grays we also have blacks squirrels and red squirrels. the black ones are a color variation of [...]

i have news for those of you following the “my mom likes grant’s blog better than mine” fact. my mother just admitted it! that’s right she just said out loud that she prefers reading grant’s blog to reading her oldest son’s blog. how sad is that?

@meganckelly – AMEN! in reply to meganckelly # I really don’t like Starbuks coffee. The other drinks are okay but not they’re coffee. # http://twitpic.com/1y05r – 4′ of snow 4 Tapestry # I love walking the dogs after a good snow. The pee really stands out on the fresh snow. # @theboy1der – cheater! # [...]

i have a gnome friend, his name is clive. he joined the terrell household while we were living in baton rouge. when i announced to parkview that i was leaving to move up to wisconsin to plant a church eric landy, one of the teens in the youth ministry, stole clive and took him on [...]

i want to let all my fellow tapestrites know that perry polnaszek is speaking at tapestry sunday night. perry is the planter and pastor of fellowship church in chippewa falls as well as the co-founder of touched twice united (a very cool ministry opportunity that we at tapestry will have a chance to be a [...]

resurrection from Robert Terrell on Vimeo.

pam and i meet with a group of friends every monday night to eat dessert and help each other follow JESUS more closely (the church phrase for this is “small group” or “life group”). it’s great. tonight we all started going through “the life you always wanted” by john ortberg. the book is about spiritual [...]

graphjam is great.

heck of a snow storm that came upon point tonight. the roads were so bad that i was surprised that we had anyone at tapestry tonight. friday i was walking around in a sweatshirt on bare grass fishing and tonight i had to blow around 5” of snow out of my driveway. wisconsin late winter [...]

  i’m a little tired from the past two days but i thought i would post of a few photos of some of the reasons i love central wisconsin. the above is from fishing with andy lickel friday in richland county. we weren’t doing any serious fishing but merely trying to scope out some new [...]

is going to bed # No Diet Coke for Lent = headaches. Becoming less often. # “it’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest” – carol dweck # http://twitpic.com/1sumh – @dinorizzo – Saturday night in Wisconsin I ate supper with your separated at birth twin. # @pastorgadget – [...]

guys i need your help. let me explain. today after a 3 month hiatus i started running again. my goal is to be ready for the mid-april oshkosh half-marathon. so i ran a couple of miles this afternoon. while doing my post running stretching i discovered a knot on the back of my knee that [...]

based on the google analytic reports i receive on the blog it appears that my past posts on the course requirements for the previous d.min courses i’ve taken at nobts have been accessed by people via searches and therefore i am assuming useful. if nothing else it lets pam know what i am doing (and [...]

my spring 2009 d.min seminar is coming up (march 18-20). this trimester i am taking “church planting leadership” which kind of seems to fit with what i’m going through. ;) as a part of the course i need to submit my strengthsfinder profile for dr. allen to see and thankfully during pam and my teamamerica [...]

here’s the monthly prayer email i put out for tapestry. if you do not receive this and would like to please let me know and i will add you to the list.

one of pam’s friends posted the following from another blog she reads. i hadn’t seen it before, loved it, and thought i would repost it over here. the original post can be found here. 1. Get baptized by the craziest guy in town. 2. Say and do things that are guaranteed to make religious people [...]

i today tried to complete some of the pre-reading for my next d.min seminar at nobts. if you watch a couple of seconds of the above video you will instantly know why i wasn’t very successful. emy j’s is normally a great place to study. there’s a constant flow of traffic but the volume level  [...]

i’m pretty proud of this young man. he is growing into quite the young gentleman.

preached at First Baptist Stevens Point this morning. Nice people but it just reminded me of how much I love Tapestry. # Not sure I will ever be able to look at Wolverine the same way again. # tired of churches describing themselves as “the church for people who don’t like church” because it usually [...]

two weeks ago i posted about sending a usb hub back to the manufacturer to get them to replace it or throw it away. i’m glad to report that kikkerland sent me a new one. it cost me $1.25 to mail it back to kikkerland and a handwritten note asking them to stand behind the [...]

thought i would wish every one a happy end of fat tuesday. i’m still debating what i will do, if anything, for lent. anybody doing anything for lent? anyhow above is my favorite resource for lent.

yesterday morning i was given the opportunity to fill in as preacher at first baptist church in stevens point. the pastor glenn is retiring this year and is trying to take advantage of all the vacation time he has accrued. glenn is a great guy who has been a lot of help to me in [...]

i’ve suddenly realized that i have missed shooting photos with my toy cameras. i’ll have to shot some more.

I just found out that the mic worked intermittently when i was recording video for this week – Now I have to find people to re-record # @joshuajones – book of acts worked for me in reply to joshuajones # catching up on last week’s “Lost” episode and I’m not even sure I want to [...]

i recently sent some medium format film in for processing. it came back today and i discovered that the first half of the film from my holga was a couple of attempts at making a pano of the mississippi river bridge in baton rouge. above is one of the shots.

as many of you know i have used a good bit the jambalaya pot and equipment that parkview, jess, meg, and josh gave me when i left baton rouge. yesterday i was using it to cook the weekly meal for “the place of peace” and had a first time experience. “the place of peace” is [...]

i think i may have developed co-dependent deer. thanks to the corn that i place in the back yard all the time we now have deer that come to our backyard and are not the least bit concerned about our dogs barking at the sliding glass doors. that has to be against the normal deer [...]

drove by this yesterday and since i am now a stevens point police chaplain i decided to stop and ask if there was anything i could do. everyone was out and the office said it was just a matter of waiting the fire department to get there and take care of business. they arrived in [...]

interesting blog post quoted by kottke concerning non-hierarchical business management. one of the opening quotes is: The word manager makes many people uncomfortable. It calls up the image of a bossman telling you what to do and forcing you to slave away at doing it. That is not effective management.   A better way to [...]

i may have just hit a new low. i just finished using a dog shedding blade to scratch my back. i couldn’t find anything else that would reach and scratch the itch properly. and i tried. i rubbed against door frames, used a mop handle, tried to get the dogs to scratch it, etc. i [...]

the audio quality sucks but this video is the beginning of me cutting off jesse’s hair for the message on amos 2:6-16 at tapestry last night. jesse was a beast for letting me do this. his hair was so thick that my normal cavalier approach to things accidentally inflicted pain on him. i wasn’t able [...]

i once heard someone say that when we read the bible we should have a hard hat on because when we read it our lives should turn into construction zones. there is also a story that shane claiborne tells of being thrown into jail and a police officer telling him that he should be careful [...]

It’s 39º outside now and thus feels like the Spring is happening. Of course, that will change soon. Yes I am an optimist! # @Joshross – getting together to talk abotu camp sounds great. i’ve already talked with joe a little on a theme. in reply to Joshross # I just walked part Michael Landon [...]

awhile back i read this article at lifehacker (which you should add to your rss reader right now). basically it recommended sending broken beyond warranty stuff back to the manufacture instead of just throwing it away. if it’s just small stuff it won’t cost you much and there is apparently a pretty decent chance that [...]

this is the amount of blood that i poured into that last post. i picked a very small scab while typing and it decided to prove its worth. before it stopped it had filled up both sides of this napkin with blood.

i am fascinated by ernest shackleton and his failed attempt to cross antarctica. i’ve read several books and watched several documentaries on the trials of the endurance crew but until this week i had not read much concerning the ross sea party (on the aurora, the supply ship for the second half of the journey [...]

i love improv everywhere. i’m not sure giving random people high fives as they go up an escalatorr is their best work but it still made me smile.

this is probably not a big deal for most of you but it brings a smile to my boys and my faces each day. one of the cool things concerning where we live is that while we are in a suburban area our backyard is connected to 20 to 30 acres of pine forest. there [...]

i’m posting this for any other church planters who realize they don’t know how to do this stuff. i spent the day trying to get an ein so that tapestry can start the process of getting a checking account. about half this morning was spent going through the online process for acquiring a number. the [...]

i love what i am doing. i love getting to be a part of GOD planting tapestry and doing some cool things with and through it. i especially love the way we started and where we are headed as a church. we started around a series of tables – tables at emy j’s coffee shop [...]

http://twitpic.com/1a9jt – Superbowl cooking has begun # Who knew the Boss was so limber? # I’m very thankful for a wife that proofs my work. Go Pam! # The paper is mailed, my wife is great, and i now have 5 hours to prep for speaking at IV tonight while also watching Noah’s ball bball [...]

this is great. it’s a curling blog and about 3/4s of the way down this post they make the following statement concerning the video of me curling that i posted for arnold: Come on Robert, your pal Arnold expects more than this … that’s right my second year skills were trashed on by people that [...]

a pano of 4 photos from adam’s concert on february 5, 2009. you can’t see adam’s face (which is pretty typical because he definitely has a nack for hiding it when i am taking photos) but you can see his bassoon. he’s the bassoon on the right. it’s best viewed large. be warned it is [...]

my dad bought me the above spartus full-vue at a garage sell a couple of years ago. it has just been sitting in the “man cave” as decoration until today. i decided i was going to go out and take a view toy camera shots. the polar plunge was today and that is just the [...]

i missed this before but apparently you can get free gmail stickers of you send a sase to gmail. stickers are good. here’s the link. SIDE NOTE – i am constantly amazed that the "pregnant man," thomas beatie, keeps on being on t.v. and other media. i just don’t get it. beatie is pregnant because [...]

here’s the tapestry monthly prayer email for february 2009. if you do not regularly get this and would like to please let me know. i love that people pray for us. i am very grateful for those people.

awhile back arnold commented that he wanted to see video of me curling. turns out it was a little harder than i had imagined to get. there aren’t many places on the curling courts that will support a camera off the ice and aren’t blocked by a human body during the match. the above is [...]

today i found out that staples gives their rewards card holders $3 credit for each used printer cartridge they return (up to 10 a month). i would highly recommend everyone recycling their used printer cartridges. while, i personally recommend using a local paper company for your paper needs i am all for getting free stuff [...]

i have never been a lotion type of guy. i’m just not interested in regularly put moisturizing lotion on my hands or body. i’ve paid a small price for it but that has never been too big of a deal. i have dealt with a couple of calluses on my hands that have been directly [...]

my parents, the only people i am sure actually care about posts being place on this blog, will be thrilled to know that today i mailed in the last paper due from my jeremiah seminar. the reason they will be thrilled is because i will now have enough time to post some new things to [...]

The Delay from Robert Terrell on Vimeo. since tapestry is a church that only has an evening worship gathering we had an interesting problem with the superbowl. do we just ignore the superbowl and do our regular thing, or do we scrap our regular thing and focus on having a shared experience with the superbowl? [...]

@johnthemember – cool hanging with you john in reply to johnthemember # http://twitpic.com/17git – The pound cake left by the Tapestry Leadership team for everyone else. That’s right half was gone 40 minutes … # continuing to research my paper and beginning to actually type a little – a very little. # trying to get [...]

from ASBO JESUS

i know most of you won’t care about this but i love my new ice fishing hat. i think i embarrass my kids by wearing it in public but i love it. what it lacks in style it makes up for in warmth. the hat has a balaclava built into it which makes it even [...]

there are a couple of things in development that tapestry will get to be involved in that i am really excited about. i thought i would share them with you: RESURRECTION SUNDAY!! – i’m pretty pumped about tapestry’s first easter and i am also thrilled with the way that the leadership team has decided to [...]

http://twitpic.com/14cc8 – Coffee after x country sking not bad # Our UWSP students are back! Now if they only remember Tapestry is tonight!?!?!?!? # Why did Mike have to steal my car keys and leave after Tapestry? # http://twitpic.com/14rqq – 24 years ago today we had our 1st date # http://twitpic.com/155z3 – Lady Liberty buying [...]

thanks to a little help our friend sharon walters pam has now learned how to make spectacular gumbo. mmmmmmmm, its good. nothing quite like a hot bowl of gumbo on a cold day. many of you may not know this but i married the best cook i have ever known. i didn’t plan it out. [...]

i guess everyone is posting about the inauguration today but i’ll avoid that other than saying that i am too much of a cynic to think that the world has changed based on an election (other than the fact we americans have our first non-anglo president – which is HUGE) and i haven’t been brainwashed [...]

24 years ago today pam and i went out on our first date. it was actually a double date with two high school friends (eric erbskorn and amy carpenter – now amy fallin). we celebrated by going out for lunch – woohoo! on a whole, i would say that date worked out pretty well. SIDE [...]

Everything for my class has now been read and typed. now I just have to do the class thing and type a 20 page post paper. # @ppolnaszek – we really need to talk about the number of mickey d’s references within your tweets. there are much better places. in reply to ppolnaszek # is [...]

a couple of adam’s friends made this video while bored. it made me laugh mainly because i’ve seen my kids and their neighborhood friends doing the same thing around here.

this is so spot on.

i’m in the louis armstrong new orleans airport waiting for my plane to start the trip home. i have a few minutes to waste and therefore i am writing this and thereby wasting your time. see, this works for both of us. :) thanks josh for letting me hang out at your house. staying at [...]

for those of you who are wondering, which basically means pam and my parents, the seminar on jeremiah that i have attended this week has been wonderful. i think i have actually gone from thinking that jeremiah was a cry baby to liking jeremiah. it ends today and i’ll be glad to be back home [...]

one of my favorite churches in the nation is the ring community church in baton rouge. they won’t like that i am blogging about how awesome they are, but that’s okay because they will get over it. i love these guys and girls and every time i get to spend time with them i am [...]

today was national human trafficking awareness day. we spent time tonight at tapestry talking about it and a few ways we can fight against it in the name of CHRIST. personally i would suggest getting involved with the international justice mission but there are other ways also. here is the article i mentioned during tonight’s [...]

bright and early tomorrow morning i will leave for new orleans for my class for this trimester. i will go from a beautiful snow covered land of 15° to a swamp of 44° (present temp on both). don’t get me wrong, i like louisiana and i love the poeple there, but I LOVE WISCONSIN and [...]

RT @ysmarko – “Following JESUS at a safe distance leaves you safe and distant” # It’s a wee bit frosty at the moment in the Point area. # hail to the LORD’s ANNOINTED! Great David’s greater SON! # @meganckelly – interestingness has nothing to do with twitter. part of the fun of twitter is connecting [...]

this was on natalie lewer & eric glaze’s wedding program. how great is this. i already thought they were great people but my respect for them jumped up several times over when i saw this.

i’ve mentioned before that all of you should listen to “the american life” but i want to give you yet another reason to listen to it. in this past week’s podcast, “numbers“, they played two songs that have been developed by polls of typical musical taste of americans. they have a song that should in [...]

i have been focused on school work for the past 15 or so days and therefore i haven’t watched or read any news. when i’ve watched video on t.v. or computer my whole goal has been to zone out rather than be informed. so i didn’t know anything about what is going on in oakland [...]

the library is supposed to be a quiet place, right? it’s supposed to be a good place to be able to think and work on a paper, if you needed to do such a thing, right? so my dilemma is would i be breaking the silence policy of the library is i take the guy [...]

dreams are good. at least i think so. tapestry began as a dream that pam and i had concerning being a part of a church that we thought 6 people whom we love would feel comfortable in. for a couple of years pam and i talked and prayed about such a church. one that was [...]

my ipod battery finally died last night. i was prepared for this and had already bought a new battery for it. i’ve had the battery for two months trying to avoid actually putting it in my ipod because i was fairly sure that i would destroy the ipod when i tried to put the battery [...]

we have a wonderful group that normally leads the music each week at tapestry. heather, hilary, sarah, sometimes jackson, and the group of people they bring with them do an amazing job of leading us in singing to our GOD each week. they are great and a huge gift from GOD to tapestry. an additionally [...]

is almost back among the land of the living. # is going to be in NOLA January 12-14 and is open to eating supper with anyone who is interested. # ate solid food for the first time in two days and now regrets it. # If it skips snowing like this I will have Basset [...]

since pam and i were doing the whole advent conspiracy thing it was my goal to doing something relational, sustainable, and cheap for pam’s CHRISTmas gift. therefore, i decided to refurbish a couple of old, trashed cross country skis because pam is pretty pumped about the thought of being able to cross country ski through [...]

i meant to post this earlier but i forgot to do so. this is the terrell family CHRISTmas newsletter that went out with our CHRISTmas cards. most of you have probably already seen it. if you didn’t then don’t blame pam because it was probably my fault. i probably forgot to tell her that we [...]

i need a little help – do any of my ministerial friends know of a source for a for good burial urns for kids? after months of fighting against a resurgence of leukemia our neighbor’s 9 year old daugther passed away yesterday. pam and i spent some time with them tonight and they are having [...]

i saw this on marko’s blog but it came from josh treece’s blog. anyway, it seemed like a good way to look back over the year. 1) What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? planted a church! finished a marathon caught a muskie caught a smallmouth bass – remember i was [...]

as i write this, instead of doing the studying that i should be doing, ’08 has 10 1/2 hours left in it. before the year ends i wanted to say “THANK YOU” for being a part of what GOD has done this year in and through tapestry. this is what i know HE has done: [...]

i meant to include this in yesterday’s “thorn birds” inspired random thoughts post but i forgot to do so. so here goes. if you are not presently regularly listening to the ted talks, then you should stop what you are doing right now and go subscribe to them via your rss reader or podcast aggregator. [...]

after a couple of days of having a stomach bug i have started and finished studying for the day. i am now watching the second episode of “the thorn birds” with pam and i thought that while we watched this thing i would post some random thoughts and events that aren’t big enough for a [...]

last week after polling everyone who is active in tapestry the group kind of decided that it would be best not to have a gathering today. it made perfect sense because there was a really good chance that eric and natalie were going to be the only people there. so we canceled today’s gathering. of [...]

@eLP88 – genetics? in reply to eLP88 # Just got back home from eatting after Tapestry and discovered that I have won the extended family fantasy football league. Go me! # Currently Browsing: http://tinyurl.com/8zpkeb – interesting but sad article on modern slavery. # Taking some more cold medicine and heading to bed. I have to [...]

pam and i watched “run fatboy run” last night (in continuation of our lazy CHRISTmas day). it was a pretty decent little movie. i think the fight scene is one of the most enjoyable fight scenes i’ve ever seen.

all the males in the terrell family absolutely love this movie. it gets better and better every time i watch it. i am saddened to admit that my lovely and intelligent wife doesn’t like the movie. she doesn’t like the princess bride either. sometimes i just don’t get her.

i hope CHRISTmas day has been fun for everyone. i have personally really enjoyed tapestry’s  involvement in advent conspiracy. part of this is because i love new ideas for celebrating and experiencing things. it really effected pam and my’s gifts for each other. i also love traditions that have happened for year after year. therefore, [...]

i don’t usually think that many sports events bare much of a witness to faith. yes, i know that a lot of games have john 3:16 signs waved in front of the tv and fingers point to heaven after points are scored but i seriously doubt that such actions convey much concerning the gospel (i’m [...]

just in case you didn’t get it (which probably means i don’t have your email address or i don’t have it typed into my contact list correctly) the above is the tapestry CHRISTmas e-card i sent out to everyone today.

for pam‘s birthday i bought her and i a ride on a one horse open sleigh. that ride was today and though it was a mighty cold day it was still a great experience. on a personal note, according to pam i have earn major “man points” because the second she posted photos on facebook [...]

the terrell 2008 CHRISTmas card. if you didn’t receive one it doesn’t mean you are not loved. it just means that we don’t have your address. please consider this your card.

http://tinyurl.com/g3oog – easy way to say thanks to those who serve in the military – no matter how you view the war. # Right now in PLover it is -8° with a windchil of -23° – oh yeah it it’s cold. # Powered by Twitter Tools.

what in the world would make a basset hound that has a shoulder height of 12” think that she could outrun and catch a white-tailed deer with a shoulder height of 40” when they are both running in 8” of fresh snow? i have no idea but i do know that this thought was stuck [...]

i love deadlines. i like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. douglas adams so much reading and prep … so little motivation. right now the prep work includes: read through jeremiah twice – done read the prophetic persona – halfway there – then review it (3-5 pages so no big deal) read [...]

why can’t dogs be a little more quiet when they throw up at 2 a.m.? follow up question – should not the said dog be nice and clean up after himself?

a very interesting video from penn gillette concerning a man giving him a gideon bible. i’m fascinated by gillette’s statement that he doesn’t respect people (of belief) who do not proselytize. his statement is “how much do you have to hate someone to not proselytize?” ht tony jones

it is my cute wife’s birthday today. i think she is pretty awesome. she’s godly, smart, cute, incredibly domestic, adventurous, challenging, and much more.

pam follows a forum for the wives of pastors, which i think is funny because anyone who knows pam knows that she is not like the typical pastor’s wife – how many pastors’ wives do you know that are ph.d professors? ok, so now i have to right a brief sidebar right in the middle [...]

as a youth minister for 18 years and a dad of 14 years i have learned a tried and true trick for making sure that i get something to eat … which has now been screwed up by my church family at tapestry. when i was doing youth ministry it always turned out that i [...]

ok, i’m going to start this by admitting that i know this is a bit off. the above photo is from the lions club building that is on the main stevens point area drag. it is exactly what it looks like. the lions club is seeking to raise funds to take kids to their lions [...]

just typing a few random things: even though it’s not official yet it appears that i have beat my brother in the semi-finals of our family’s fantasy football league. i just wanted to point out that he should not feel like a complete loser just because i have smashed his face into the ground! i [...]

some of you are probably tired of me talking about the gobo sign but i thought for those that were still interested i would post a final photo showing how it worked. i still have to fine tune it a little to get rid of a small amount of blurriness but i was still pleased [...]

happy birthday noah!

the above photo is not a wonderful picture of them but pam came up with a great idea for our house tonight. we both love luminaries and she thought we should use the snow to our advantage by poking a hole in the snow and then placing a candle in the hole to act as [...]

sunday at tapestry we’re discussing luke 2:21-40. i know it doesn’t initially look like an incarnational passage of scripture but i am convinced it is. so i was wondering if any of you wold share your stream of thought when you here the word “incarnation?” i’m not just looking for church answers here. anything is [...]

just wanted to remind everyone that it’s tapestry’s CHRISTmas hot drink night at the terrell’s tomorrow night. this means that we will have coffee, hot chocolate, wassail (oh yeah wassail – whatever that is), etc. we’ll also have some finger foods and decently nice people to hang around with. it’s from 6:30-9:00p.m. and it’s come [...]

the tapestry sign problem has basically been solved now. as i posted before the signage i purchased for tapestry has been rendered null and void by the fact that it is dark in stevens point by the time we start our gatherings. if you were trying to find tapestry based on signs you were out [...]

i first watched firefly on dvd in 2006. if you are a sci-fi fan then it’s a great series. i found it on hulu a couple of weeks ago and i’ve been slowly watching it again. it really is a wonderful series and it is yet another reason that i really like hulu.

from asbo JESUS

this is just me thinking out loud and so nothing will probably come of it. in order to keep things fresh i need to be exposed to new ideas at least annually. for me in the past this has meant conferences. therefore, i’m looking into a conference for next year. the one that i find [...]

just wanted to give a blog shout out to ben sheets. ben and good shepherd lutheran church gave me a snow blower today. woohoo! the blower was sitting in the shed and they had no use for it so ben apparently thought “why not put this thing to use by giving it to someone else” [...]

a decent amount of snow has finally hit the point area. now if we could only get a few more inches then the terrell family can go cross-country skiing.

i posted about our copper charlie brown tree earlier. i’ve been trying to improve it a little each week. this week i gave it lights. oh yeah, i continually pull out all the stops. sometimes i even impress myself.

every month i put out a prayer email for those who have agreed to pray for us and tapestry. here’s the email for december. if you do not already receive this email and would like to then send me an message and i’ll add you to the list. thanks for praying guys and girls.

last week i discovered that our outdoor church signs have been made meaningless by the darkness. as many of you know tapestry meets at night. it makes for a wonderful sunday and our signs work great during daylight savings time. during daylight savings time it’s very well lite at 6 p.m. and is usually still [...]

hey if anyone who reads my blog needs a dryer then i have a bargain for you. when we moved to point 15 months ago we had an electric dryer. the problem was that our new home was rigged for a gas dryer. since we wanted to move to high-capacity, more efficient washers and dryers [...]

it’s not over yet but i still thought i would hit a few of the highlights of the terrell family thanksgiving break. the first highlight was thanksgiving lunch. bree, from tapestry, came over to join us along with three new friends from uwsp, they are international students from china. i can’t remember how to spell [...]

i know that i have already briefly posted on “black friday” but pam pointed out this article and so i thought i would post it. a worker was killed at a new york walmart by crowds trampling him as he opened the doors of the store for the beginning of the black friday sale. the [...]

is black friday an american holiday (in the meaning of the word’s original meaning as a “holy day:)? i fear that it might be almost a holy day of obligation within our society.

so i am presently sitting up at 4 am smoking turkeys and i thought that since i was up i might as well go ahead and list some things i am thankful for. so here goes: a GOD WHO is worth being thankful for pam – i definitely married up – she’s smarter than me, [...]

i had a haircut today. when noah, the youngest terrell boy, saw me immediately after he got off his bus he said “hey dad. you got a haircut today, didn’t you?” after i said yes he responded with “dad, you should congratulate me on how good my eyesight is because you have so little hair [...]

i’m in my public office (emy j’s) and i can’t focus on what i’m supposed to be doing because the afternoon rush has started. therefore i am going to start recording random statements that i can hear over the din of noise within the place. here are some of the statements: you have to keep [...]

just wanted to let anyone who read this blog and will be around point during thanksgiving that the terrell family would love to have you join us for thanksgiving lunch. we have a few tapestry people joining us and hopefully some international students from uwsp. just send me an email and i’ll get directions to [...]

i love what i am doing BUT i still miss youth ministry. i don’t want to swap back or anything like that but i miss some of the fun and experiences that are just naturally a part of working with teens. since the only teen we have in tapestry right now is my oldest son [...]

as many of you know tapestry is doing advent conspiracy to celebrate CHRISTmas. you can get a great idea of what advent conspiracy is all about by just going to the advent conspiracy link above. the short version of it is that we are trying to bring the CHRISTmas holiday back to being a holy [...]

i need to remember NOT to drop from waist level a 4d size maglite on the top of my foot. it hurts very bad. SIDE NOTE – just want to give a shout out to elizabeth pam’s british friend who apparently reads this blog. just to give you a heads up – we will eventually [...]

snow season is about to enter central wisconsin and leaf falling season has left. today this meant that i was going to seize our afternoon warm spell (it warmed up to 30º this afternoon) to blow all the pine straw off of our home’s roof. that way the straw wouldn’t be there to possibly cause [...]

the new xbox 360 update is great. my kids think the new dashboard with its avatars are wonderful and we all think having our netflix account on the xbox is terrific. i wasn’t sure how good the quality of the video stream would be but it is wonderful. watching the office and heros on the [...]

pam is presenting at the asha convention. she’ll be enjoying chicago till sunday. this means that the boys and i are baching it until then. once a month i visit with a group of pastors for a book discussion. actually i belong to several different groups that i visit with once a month but this [...]

this is great and i so wish that i had done then when i was doing youth ministry (right now i’m the closest thing to a senior adult we have at tapestry). the senior adult choir agreed to sing parts of hip hop songs for an intro to a youth ministry thingy. what a great [...]

just because some people want to watch them again, i’m posting the videos from tonight’s tapestry.   the first one was from advent conspiracy and is a further explanation of what we will be doing. Advent Conspiracy Interviews from Robert Terrell on Vimeo.     the next one is from the onion. it’s about halloween [...]

i’m not sure why but i always feel guilty blatantly advertising on my blog for something that is going on a tapestry. i know it’s stupid. anyhow i just thought i would post the graphics for the 4×6” cards for advent conspiracy at tapestry and the 11×17” poster (which is the same as the front [...]

this is what you win when you do well in curling. the one of the right is from winning the ‘08-‘09 open tournament and the one of the left is from coming in second on our evening for the ‘08-‘09 season. i don’t drink alcohol so i’m not an expert here but i’m pretty sure [...]

curling season has begun and it began the right way – with a win and without me falling and busting my butt.

i should have added this to yesterday’s random post but i forgot to do so until this morning when i was walking the basset hounds. it’s just a reminder for those of you who were at tapestry this past sunday. remember that your homework for this week is to feed someone. that’s right i gave [...]

i’m just posting right now because i haven’t posted in a few days. therefore, i would recommend that you quit reading at this point because this will be a boring post. i just bought the text books for my class for the winter ‘09 nobts trimester. thank GOD for used books and amazon. i now [...]

this is great. it’s a 7:45 documentary of the life of and war (wink) of hobos in the great depression. who knew that polio and pearl harbor were related to a war of hobos versus the united states of american? ht cyn-c via kottke.

i do love johnny cash.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

first, i have friends and family who voted on both sides of the election and feel pretty strongly about it. therefore this post has nothing to do with who was right or wrong. it’s just about two things. 1) i am proud to be an american. i would have been proud to be an american [...]

i know of at least one person is interested in this (i.e. josh ross) so here are the two videos that i used tonight.

i was in rochester, minnesota this weekend for the mwbc annual meeting. while i was there i thought i would go after the friday evening meeting and watch religulous. since the movie is an attempt to convince people that religious belief is stupid and should be rejected by everyone, i thought it was pretty important [...]

just in case you can’t tell she’s from alaska.

wow. this is incredible. it’s a mash up of mccain’s and obama’s answers to questions within the three debates. it really let’s you know how obama and mccain say the same thing over and over. the tone and the words are the same every time. it’s incredible. when i used to preach in the sunday [...]

i saw this a few minutes ago and thought “wow it’s about to hit the fan.” cnn said sarah palin was now talking openly about running in 2012. i was floored. then i watched the whole thing and i think cnn blew everything out of proportion but i still think palin may have screwed up. [...]

the above is a picture of mcdill pond. it has been drained in an attempt to use the winter to kill the non-native aquatic plants that have taken it over. i understand why it is being done but driving by it still make me a little sad. it will be even worse this winter because [...]

pam has suckered me into being recorded as a test subject for the com. d. department at uwsp. they need subjects with different accents and a southern accent is a rare commodity up here in the land of cheese. therefore, i will go into her department next week so that they can record my voice [...]

it was pumpkin carving night at the terrell household. as always it was a ton of fun. i have a pretty great family. here are some photos from the evening. SIDE NOTE – i got to do something cool today. up until last year i have been a youth minister. during my 18 years in [...]

some of the words from last night’s use of lectio divina at tapestry.

it is hard for this alabama native to believe but we had our first snow in point today. that’s right on october 27th we had snow flurries in the stevens point area. i love it. i love snow. it is amazing. i’m not sure why but anytime it starts snowing, no matter if it is [...]

yes the above picture is of a trebuchet. yes this trebuchet was designed to throw the pumpkins in that wheelbarrow beside it all the way across the field you see in the picture. no i unfortunately did not get to see it operated. as i told you yesterday we were going to see the pumpkin [...]

i’m using this video at tapestry tomorrow night. it should be fun. even better matthew has made another video for tomorrow that goes with the scripture. one of the things that i was hoping would happen within tapestry is that there would be expressions of worship that came from within the community rather than us [...]

my highly polished and professional looking graphic for use during the message i am preaching sunday at tapestry. as you can tell i spare no expense in conveying the message of the LORD. SIDE NOTE – i want this! it’s an elmo document projector and i can get this used one for $199. some friends [...]

awhile back pam said i needed new clothes. this is a big deal because i rarely buy clothes. my clothes usually come from birthday and CHRISTmas presents. until recently this system had worked pretty well for me. i had clothes and i didn’t have to go shopping. it was the best of both worlds. a [...]

i just wanted to say “thanks” again to so many of you. when i left parkview a year ago they threw a party (i’m still not sure if it was out of joy or sadness over me leaving). at the end of the party jess, meg, josh, and the parkview youth gave me a jambalaya [...]

where love is implemented, there is the church. ubi caritas, ibi ecclesia. … where it is not translated into blood and prayers and tears, into “works of love,” no amount of theology, candles, vestments, incense, or polished black hearses can make up the difference… john caputo, what would JESUS deconstruct?, p. 124.

every thursday night the tapestry leadership team gets together at our house to eat, discuss what GOD is doing in and through tapestry, bounce ideas around, and watch “the office” together. it’s a good time because we all pretty much love hanging out together. anyhow this week was great because of two reasons: 1) we [...]

if you are not presently listening to “this american life” each week you should start. it is consistently great. this past sunday’s show did a great job of explaining how big a deal the current economic crisis really is all while also being quite entertaining. do you self a favor and download last week’s show [...]

the above photo is from my facebook profile (if i’m not your friend just look me up and add me – i’ll gladly confirm you). anyhow mike (a member of the leadership team, a great disc golfer, and apparently a lousy fisherman) posted the above statements on my wall. it was so cool to see [...]

yes, i am probably biased but i am loving the girls and guys who lead the music at tapestry. not only are they are doing a great job but they are also being very creative. in the four weeks of worship gatherings we have already had original songs, a cello/beat boxer deut, and a harmonica [...]

a couple of weeks ago my car’s radio antenna suffered a catastrophic collision with my canoe. the result has been that i am now constantly listening to podcasts on my ipod. today i was listening to talk of the nation as it described the national geographic show “factory floor.” the show details the process of [...]

for those of you who want it here’s the tapestry monthly prayer email for october. if you are not already receiving this by email and would like to then just email me and i will add you to the list.

this is the one i caught today. i also missed another one.

i’m putting this audio file up here because i think it is cool. the ladies and gents who have been leading the music at tapestry have been doing an incredible job. heather has a done an amazing job of getting some very creative and talented people involved in leading worship at tapestry. this past sunday [...]

i got the chance to speak at the uwsp chapter of of intervarsity last night. i’m decided to test the new digital recorder we’re using for tapestry and i recorded the message. since i have it recorded i thought i might as well put it up on the blog.

for those of you who are interested here are the two videos that i used sunday night at tapestry. this is a video of the scripture that the message came from. work of the people produced the video. i really love their stuff. and this is a segment from olbermann that i used as an [...]

the title pretty much explains the purpose of the photo. for those who are wondering, yes the hook is in my nose, but no it is not all the way through my nose. that part has been photoshoped.

one of the coolest things that pam and i have experience in this little adventure of planting tapestry has been all the unexpected support we have received. we went into this thing believing that GOD would provide and knowing that i do a pretty lousy job of asking for help. we moved up to stevens [...]

i am continually helped in church planting by information designed for small business owners. the two are obviously not the same thing but they do face many of the same challenges. today lifehacker posted a link to their ultimate small business resource guide. some of the things listed are ones that i am already using [...]

  i love woot. i think i have mentioned that fact before but i thought i would mention it again. it’s just a fun way of doing commerce. anyhow they had the above shirt for sale yesterday and the nerd that is hidden away in me (not very well hidden but still hidden) had to [...]

if you are involved in the church culture at all (sometimes versus CHRISTianity) you know that there are certain words and phrases that come into favor at various times. i assume it’s the same in every other “industry” and/or organizational culture in the world. the phrases are inside words that all those who are a [...]

when we were dreaming about starting tapestry one of the things that kept popping up into our discussions was that we wanted to be a place that “shows off GOD’s grace.” basically this means that we want to a place that people in our community will be able to see doing things that really convey [...]

i’m posting this for those who may be interested. this is 1 of the 2 videos i showed last night at tapestry. it’s a fun little montage of JESUS cleansing/trashing the temple. the other video i showed was the one on how we read JESUS.

i saw this twain quote on my google homepage this evening. When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

i’m reading john d. caputo’s book “what would JESUS deconstuct” at the moment and here are a few quotes that have stuck out thus far. deeconstrcution is organized around the idea that things contain a kind of uncontainable truth, that they contain what they cannot contain [emphasis added] page 29 the nest time we look [...]

this is pretty much what my father and i did on the parental units’ visit to wisconsin. i took mom to the cheese factory and dad to the river.

okay per stephen’s last comment i will post more details about the launch. sunday was the launch of tapestry and it went wonderfully, but even better is that there are already several ways that some of us see to make it connect even better with the people within our community. when i say it wonderfully [...]

i’m pretty tired right now so i won’t post anything too long but i did want to let everyone know that the birthday tapestry has been accomplished. now we get to started the growth and maturing processes. after 3 years of dream, 2 years of planning, 13 months of being in point, and a ton [...]

for those of you who are wondering i did most definitely buy a JESUS bobble head figure for the “would JESUS be a CHRISTian” message series. the main point of it will be a reminder for everyone that this is not what our LORD should be like. a bobble head JESUS agrees with everything you [...]

Emerging Church View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: brian mclaren) always fun to find something you’ve done posted by someone else on the web. the above slideshow is found on slideshare. i go there every now and then to get new ideas for more engaging powerpoint presentations. i looked at this slide show [...]

this is the sermon series i am working on for september 21st through october 12th. the idea came from an college article i read from 2005 called “capitalists make bad CHRISTians” by ian greenleigh. i didn’t agree with everything in the article but i did think it raised some good questions. then i read several [...]

tapestry launch video from Robert Terrell on Vimeo. this is the video i will probably show at the opening of the tapestry launch service.

98% excited or 98% scared from Robert Terrell on Vimeo. tapestry had it’s second and last “preview” worship gathering last night. the only thing left now is the real deal. last night was great and hard at the same time. mike penza’s brother ended up passing away this week. we all hurt for mike and [...]

some of you know and love mike penza. some of you don’t know him yet but if you did you would love him. mike’s brother dave has been struggling with cancer for four years. dave is a college student and he has gone through more struggle than most of us ever will. mike texted yesterday [...]

once or twice in previous churches.

i like candles in worship. nothing blatantly spiritual about them, they just help me to get into the right mindset. washington elementary school now has a no open flame policy and therefore regular candles are a “no no.” the issue i now face is whether flameless candles are just completely cheesy or not. i feel [...]

here’s the monthly prayer email i send out to those who are praying on behalf of tapestry. if you do not receive this email and would like to please message me and i will add you to the list.

FIRST let me say that i am praying for and thinking about all my friends and family that live in the path of hurricane gustav. if you haven’t evacuated yet and would like to you are welcome to come to our home. wisconsin is wonderful right now and well worth the visit (even if it [...]

here’s the produced version of the radio ad i mentioned in my previous ad post. it will begin playing labor day.

i’m continually updating tapestry’s website. at the moment i am working on making the f.a.q.’s better. i made myself laugh today by the answer to the question “what do i need to wear to tapestry?” here’s the answer Clothes! You must wear clothes to everything that Tapestry does. We’re pretty strict about that. What type [...]

for those of you who are interested i’m putting up the initial script for our radio ad that will run on wifc & the valley. here’s the rough draft [MX:  ROCK!!!!] [SFX:  BIG ENGINE REV] MONSTER TRUCK ANCR:  SUNDAY!  SUNDAY!  SUNDAY!  You’re gonna be BORED!  BORED!  BORED!  You’re gonna hear PREACHING and LECTURING!  You’re gonna [...]

i’m 40 yeaqrs old and i have been hooked by fishing lures quite a few times BUT i have never been hooked to the point that i had to push the barb all the way through my skin and cut it off to remove the hook until today. the above photo is what my left [...]

i “needed” a new deskptop wallpaper for my computer so i created this today while talking with the copywrite guy for the radio stations (94.7fm, 95.5fm, & 99.9fm) we are going to run tapestry launch ads on (by the way the copywriter was quite cool to talk with). since it costs me nothing to do [...]

i saw this sign when i was at the lifeway bookstore at new orleans seminary. i know the sign is just for some cheesy religious merchandise but it still made me sad. seems to me that one of the biggest problems those of us who are believers in JESUS face is believing that we can [...]

this afternoon i got to do two things i love: 1)talk with someone concerning youth ministry, and 2)fish for smallmouth bass. josh is helping to start the youth ministry at tapestry’s sponsoring church, fellowship church in waupaca. when he asked if we could get together and talk about youth ministry i asked if we could [...]

i’m sick and therefore the normal terrell family tradition of august being “no t.v. month” is temporarily suspended. if one of us is sick to the point of having to stay inside during the month of august then television is allowed. even though it’s always hard to start it i still always love “no t.v. [...]

one of the things that google reader does is identify who actually posts material on the blogs you are reading. for example, the above image came from a post that susie austin did on the austins’ blog concerning alicia’s birthday (which was the 19th – if you forgot it is still not too late to [...]

we are back from nicaragua and my stomach is slowly but surely surviving my swap from nicaraguan to american food (major food changes always throw me off – much like my dogs). as always there is way too many amazing things for me to post them all. therefore, i will only post a few. the [...]

the beginning of my d.min experience at new orleans seminary was ok. the reason i say ok is because my first workshop was basically just an orientation to the school and what is expected from my research. obviously that not very exciting. of course, it wasn’t meant to be exiting. the good part is that [...]

i love this as a star wars fan and a child of the 80s. it is that good. who ever thought of animating boba fett to do flashdance was a genius.

for those who read my plane post and are worried that i’m depressed or completely freaking out i just want to let everyone know that i am fine. all i was doing was posting my thoughts at that moment. those feelings are my real feelings sometimes but VERY RARELY. in other words, I’M OKAY MOM.

but i do miss cane’s. i got to eat at cane’s tonight. mmmmmmmm

i’m presently in the air between chicago and new orleans and since i am very bored of reading turabian (writer’s guide of style) for my class tomorrow, i though i would post something on the blog. each month i have to complete a report to send to the mwbc to receive my funding. it’s really [...]

this will be short but just wanted to let you all know that i am stupid. my first class for my d.min begins thursday. i’ve been reading the wrong syllabus for the past month and therefore thinking that my papers would be due weeks after the class is over. baaaaaaah! wrong answer. i looked at [...]

since we live 5 minutes away from three different river/creeks we decided we would take the canoe out after supper and see how roux would respond to being on the water. roux liked the canoe a good bit less than montana but apparently felt much more comfortable with the idea of walking around in the [...]

  pam and i decided that me fulfilling my basset version of “a river runs through it” was a worthy enough goal for us to work on. therefore, i went to the pet companion today and purchased a basset size live vest. then pam and i grabbed montana and the canoe and headed out to [...]

does anyone have any experience with basset hounds and canoes? for that matter, does anyone have any experience with medium to large size dogs and canoes? i have a compelling desire to take at least one of my dogs out on the canoe with me when i am fishing. the probably is that i’m worried [...]

i have a request for my wisconsin CHRISTian friends who read this blog but are already active in a church – would you consider being “missionaries” to tapestry for 3-6 months? here’s what i mean. it does the kingdom of GOD no good what so ever for me to encourage CHRISTians to move from one [...]

here’s the august edition of the monthly tapestry prayer email i send out. if you would like to receive this in your inbox each month just email me and i’ll add your name to the list. thanks for praying.

i’ve tweaked the rave card front a little (basically adjusted the sky & grass color) and i feel pretty happy with it now. here it is. you can look at the original one here. i think the difference is pretty clear and obviously i prefer the newest one. now it’s time for the back. here [...]

i’m now researching the next big tapestry purchase. truthfully i’m about fed up with buying large items for tapestry, i would much rather use our resources doing something good rather than just buying more equipment. yet i guess this is a part of it all right now. anyhow, we will be meeting in a gym [...]

if you haven’t seen the pixar short that’s in front of wall-e then you should. it’s quite good. you can see it in hd here. my run for the day distance – 5.0 miles time – 50:31 pace – 10:07/mile

i’m in the process of having to produce signage for the inside and outside of washington elementary when we are in the building. right now it looks like group imaging is going to offer the best deal for portable and easy to put up signs (but i’m very open to other companies if someone knows [...]

i read an article today concerning the amazing inflation of zimbawe. the official inflation right right now according to the government is 2.2 million percent a year, though some analysts believe the actual rate is closer to 12.5 million percent a year. for those of you who are not economically inclined thing of it like [...]

this is the video i talked about with the tapestry launch team today at lunch. basically these two guys raised a lion from cub to lion. when he was too big they figured out a way to release him into the wilds of africa. after a year they wanted to visit and see how he [...]

this is just some tapestry admin stuff. these are photos of washington elementary school, the facility we will rent for services on sunday evening. i’m just putting the pictures up so the launch team can dream a little concerning what we can do with it.    

"the secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." albert einstein i pride myself on finding a lot of sources for new and different things. i’m not a very creative person but i am quite decent at adapting what other people have done. when i say adapting what i mean is being inspired [...]

i have now taken pam and both the boys smallmouth bass fishing and they have all caught their first smallie. a lot of people around here hate smallmouth bass fishing but this wisconsin transplant loves it. they are so much fun. of course, the place i go for smallie fishing also brings out the occassional [...]

an interesting video that i will definitely end up using eventually. it’s all about what would happen if the stop sign had to be invented by a modern marketing strategy. it makes me laugh.

i’m working on a “rave card” (basically a 4”x6” card) to start handing out to people as a reminder of the tapestry launch that is coming up soon (september 14th). once the “rave card” is finished it will probably also turned into some door hangers and perhaps a billboard for a month. this is just [...]

we got to reconnect with some old friends yesterday. the leiningers are friends who are missionaries in siberia through the imb. they are in the states on a two month furlough. andy and i were on staff together at the first baptist church of carthage. he and elisabeth are the type of friends that we [...]

yesterday sergio went fishing for the first time. this morning he wanted to catch something and eat it. the above picture was sergio’s lunch. we went to what is known as the “lagoon” and caught a decent number of catfish. this was the smallest of the bunch. sooner or later i will stop posting about [...]

i’ll tell more later but for all those who were worried about our venezuelan guest’s first time experience with fishing i thought i would give you a quick report. well, it turned out that sergio had not only never been fishing before but he had also never canoed before. so the first 15 minutes we [...]

a former youth ministry student, sergio, has come up to stevens point for the weekend. it’s great, i get to introduce him to the wonders of point and to fishing. yep, you see sergio is 21 years old and he has never been fishing. when adam and noah heard this they stared at sergio in [...]

monday through thrusday i have to pick up adam and two of his friends from the fitness camp they are a part of. yesterday we had a decent intense hail storm (lots and lots of grape sized hail). it was bad enough that i finally had to stop the car and find a tree. that’s [...]

i’m bouncing ideas around in my head at the moment for a launch team (the group that is helping me start tapestry) discussion of the mission of tapestry. the one i like the most right now is that “tapestry exists to show off the grace of GOD.” i just love the idea of us “showing [...]

recently penza has turned me on to disc golf and it turns out that it is another great connection with many of the people i have been meeting in point. the problem with disc golf is that i find myself wanting to improve and thus getting frustrated when i don’t improve. i’m therefore going to [...]

thanks to my parents i now have an old town guide 147 canoe. oh yeah. next comes the fishing in it and the pimping out of my canoe. i’ve already order a 48” boat rule to put on the lip for purposes of measuring the killer muskie i plan on catching. ;) it’s the first [...]

pam is connected with a couple of different forums. one of these is pastor’s wives which as you could probably guess is a group of pastor’s wives who talk about various things relating to their lives. anyhow, every now and then we end up meeting someone from around the country that pam knows from the [...]

thanks to perry polnaszek i went to a church planting seminar at green lakes conference center that was quite good. not really anything particularly new but a good reminder of stuff that is important. on the way back to point i saw this. it’s a 30’ high rosary made of bowling balls. that’s not something [...]

this is over at the big picture. it’s a photo essay of the chinese anit-terrorism preparation for the olympics. this photo is great and probably in need of a wonderful caption that i am too lame to invite myself.

let me be honest … at one time i enjoyed spending church money. i’m not talking about wasting money or doing anything unethical with it. no what i mean is that when i had to buy something big for the church and/or youth ministry i enjoyed it. it was fun. doing the research, trying to [...]

woohoo! i’m no longer the oldest terrell on facebook … my dad has joined. now, no matter how many comments my kids make about me being the oldest person on facebook i can always remind them of their poppa. :)

the past week i’ve been preaching at the bay lakes associational camp for the past week. this was the first time i’ve been at a youth camp without a youth ministry that i was leading. it left me with a decent amount of free time. i used most of it hanging out with teens at [...]

jonny baker is always a wealth of creative resources. he put this up last week. it’s the textoriser. it basically redraws whatever image you give it using the words you supply. i’m not sure how i will use it at this point but i know that i will use it.

the july prayer email for tapestry has been sent out. you can view it here. if you are not already receiving this monthly email and would like to receive it then simply email me and i will put you on the list. thanks for praying.

everyone i have talked to concerning planting a portable church has told me to try and have contingency plans for as much as you can. so of this means have duplicates for everything possible. several of the people i have talked to have described how often they have computer problems (laptops take a decent amount [...]

there is a group of ra’s in thorndale, texas that is praying for us and tapestry. they’ve asked for a photo of the terrell family that they could use within their church for encouraging others to pray for what is happening within tapestry and the point area. of course, we’re all over the idea of [...]

i have a beautiful wife and i live in a gorgeous area. the terrell family is in need of a new family portrait so pam and i went looking for a couple of good spots. this was one of the test photos.

thanks to a surprise from my mom & dad i’ll be buying a canoe sooner than i had thought. the model above is the one i’m looking at. it’s an old town guide 147. the current models are only in green and red but dunham sports has a model from last year that’s yellow. oh [...]

noah and i went to play disc golf with penza this afternoon. we went to yulga which is not a smart place to take a kid for his first time playing disc golf. man, that’s a hard course. for those who have never played disc golf i’ll tell you the reason that yulga is so [...]

i love public radio. i listen to it all the time. saturday while driving back from a camp planning meeting i was able to listen to a couple of interesting interviews, 1) richard dawkins talking about how he believes religion is useless, and 2) alistar mcgrath (who is one of my favorite writers) talking about [...]

[AC] advent conspiracy from jon jollins on Vimeo. this is amazing. it’s advent conspiracy and pam and i are talking about doing it. i also believe i’m going to talk to tapestry about being a part of it. basically the idea is that the birth of CHRIST was a revolutionary event. therefore, our celebration of [...]

this cute little guy made his appearance in our house last night. we know this because oreo, our cat, was chasing him around all night. i caught him this morning and i released him at jack’s park. pam freaked out. of course, he’s only cute if he is the only little guy in our house. [...]

noah caught his first wisconsin fish this evening. the plover veteran’s memorial pond is two miles from our home we found out that there are a decent number of little largemouth bass in it. adam almost caught a monster cat.

perhaps the best street name ever.

i finally got the chance to do a little bit of wisconsin trout fishing. i didn’t have much time today but i wanted to spend a little of that time on the tomorrow river, thankfully the tomorrow is only about 15 minutes away from our home. so i went there and spent a little time [...]

i saw this on kottke a little earlier. a group of teen girls in a massachusetts city made a pack to get pregnant and raise their children together. right now there are 17 girls, most of whom are below the age of 16, that apparently became pregnant on purpose. in desperation one of the girls [...]

after nearly 17 years keebler has passed away. keebs was the first addition to the terrell household and therefore thought pam and i a little of what to expect when we had human additions. he was also the first cat i ever liked, let alone loved (the jury is still out on oreo). he’s been [...]

for those of you keep track of the the birth of tapestry i thought you would like to know that we now officially have a spot. our request has been approved and we will be holding services at washington elementary school. now we just have to begin those services. 3 more months.

i spent some time with andy, the intervarsity campus minister, today and as usually happens he took me fishing (which is a great thing). i had two firsts today: 1) i have never caught a catfish on a crankbait before (i’ve always caught cats on live bait or stink bait) and 2) i’ve never caught [...]

just a quick list of things i have learned from my dad thus far: fishing is better than hunting because it doesn’t do much good to practice “catch and release” with an animal you have just shot. if you work at it you can have an enjoyable conversation with most anybody. outside of abuse and [...]

for the fun of it the family and i decided to make my mom’s day and take some friday the 13th photos. you see my mom is just a tiny bit superstitious. ;) anyhow, here they are:  

i’ve mentioned it several times in the past but i’ll say it again … i love google docs. i just spent the past 30 minutes editing our project mayhem document with mike. he’s at his home and i’m at mine but we are both typing away on the document over the web. it’s great.

  i love this. it’s a article on the new york times website concerning an architect (eric clough) who redesigned a client’s apartment and without the client knowing about it placed a scavenger hunt within the contents of the apartment. a year after the redesign the architect sent the owners a poem that was the [...]

i’m posting this for those of you who love bookmarklets but don’t read lifehacker (which you should). it’s a lifehacker post concerning the top ten bookmarklets that you should have. my personal favorites are the following (the links are the actual code so you can just drag them to your toolbar): supercharged gmailthis – does [...]

i’m trying windows live writer out for a few weeks. i’m not a big fan of micro$oft products but i’m intrigued by this blog poster so i’m trying it out for a little while to see how i feel about it. i usually use w.bloggar or just post from my wordpress dashboard and i will [...]

for me the scariest part of moving to wisconsin to plant tapestry was how my kids would react. i’ve seen too many ministers move to new areas with little regard for their kids and as a result having their kids grow to hate the bride of CHRIST (i.e. the church). when pam and i prayed [...]

i was wondering what other wifi hotspots people might know of within the point area. the reason i ask is because with school being out my summer "office" is any place that has an open wifi network. i love my kids, and i love spending time with them, but when i need to concentrate then [...]

today is my mom’s birthday. if there was a competition for mom my mother would tie with the mom of my kids (a.k.a pam, my wife). she’s that good of a mom.

i sent in my tuition for nobts today thus making me official as a student again. woohoo, here come student discounts! anyway, this means life is back like it should be. of the nearly 18 years that pam and i have been married 12 of those years have involved at least one of us being [...]

just some things that are bouncing around in my life at the moment today was the last day of school for both my boys. i am now the parent of a high school student (9th grade) and a middle school student (6th grade). i am old. i really like the flickr video feature. the main [...]

awhile back i posted briefly concerning video churches. ed stetzer has posted his thoughts on these “franchise”/mcchurches (it was also an article in “outreach“) and then he also posted geoff surratt’s response to his questions. i tend to agree with stezer’s thoughts on the matter more than surratt’s. i know quite a few people who [...]

today is my dad’s birthday. on a whole i would describe him as a great dad (other than his extreme cheapness and love for bad country music). happy birthday dad. SIDE NOTE – i’m coaching noah’s soccer team. i just typed this so that you could all have a good laugh for the day.

i went fishing with andy for an hour and a half today. this was the result of that hour and a half. andy catches a ton of fish. i on the other hand slipped while we were portaging the canoe and promptly fell into the wisconsin river. this video is hosted on flickr using the [...]

this is completely pathetic – both the throw and how she decided to dress to throw out the first pitch of a baseball game. come on, somewhere inside the pop diva there has to be a semi normal person.

since my parents aren’t on facebook i thought i would post my latest facebook profile photo on the blog for them to see. i thought they might enjoy it.

i am more and more thankful each week that we were able to sell our house in baton rouge. the people who bought it from us did so for purposes of flipping it. they’ve had it on the market since october. i’m sorry for them but i’m real glad it’s not us. pam watched some [...]

here’s the monthly prayer email for june. i send these out each month. if you are not receiving them and would like to please email me and i’ll add you to the list.

i thought y’all might enjoy seeing what the point area looked like a month ago and what it looks like in the same spot during may. both photos were taken at emy j’s (the best little coffee shop in the point area) on the 28th of the month. it’s just that one was in april [...]

this is not going to be much of a post but i still thought i would put down a few thoughts concerning the movies i’ve seen with my family within the past week or so. iron man – wow! what a great movie. one of the best super hero movies ever. tons of other people [...]

i’m in baton rouge at the moment and right now i am officiating the wedding ceremony for haley fletcher & john gieselmann. i couldn’t be more happy to be a part of something. they are a great young couple an while i can’t predict the future (i failed my courses on prophecy in seminary) and [...]

this is just odd. it’s a public access t.v. show about a guy painting while on a treadmill and also taking calls and eating a meringue pie while on the treadmill. it’s truly od.