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Behavioural Sciences

I love behavioural sciences.  I know very little about the subject but it intrigues me.  I think it is very interesting to learn why people do what they do and how their communication (verbal and non-verbal) can say more than they plan to share if one knows how to understand it.  

My interest in behavioural sciences is why I like shows like Criminal Minds, The Mentalist, and pretty much all crime shows because they always have criminals with unique behavior issues.  Another show that deals in this stuff is Lie to Me.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to watch it but a famous psychologist who specializes in that field of study blogs about the truth behind the episodes of that show.  His name is Paul Ekman.  His website is pretty cool, check it out here.

Maybe you'll think it's cool too, or maybe I'm just a huge nerd.  Probably both.

I can't wait....

....to watch Transformers 2.  I know, I'm a huge nerd.  And if you didn't already think so, you will after I tell you that I "robotized" myself on the transformersmovie.com website:

Things Aren't Always What They Seem

Check out this video that shows some amazing creativity.  I'd love to see it in person to see how real it looks from a short distance away.  Visit the blog here if you can't see the video below.

Parody Q & A with John Maxwell

 If you liked the parody Q & A with Craig Groeschel you might like this one with John Maxwell. 

Q & A With Craig Groeschel

This is a hilarious video the Catalyst team put together to introduce Craig at Catalyst West Coast:

"Satan's" Thoughts on the Economy & Money

The team at LifeChurch.tv put together this clip showing "Satan's" thoughts on the economy and money.  Funny, sad and true all at the same time:

Fun: A Great Motivator

In Discovery Island we have been having a "County Fair" theme all month to celebrate the virtue of fairness.  We have the environment decorated like a county fair, complete with booths where kids can play games and do activities you would typically find at a fair or carnival (ball toss, face painting, etc) and they get candy as prizes. 

We had to cut time out of our small group time (the most important time) in order to provide enough time for kids to really enjoy the booths each week.  It was a great decision, because a lot of momentum has been created this month and the fun the kids are having has been a great motivation to them. 

Specifically, they have been motivated to take advantage of everything we encourage families to do at CCC.  We provide take home cards to the kids each week so they can continue the conversation at home with their parents.  In order to encourage kids and parents to use those cards, we told the kids they can get extra booth tickets each week if they completed those cards at home with their parents.  We also told them they could get extra tickets by inviting friends to Discovery Island each week.  So far we have seen a lot of kids bringing in their cards they did at home and bringing new friends. 

Fun is a great motivator and has unfortunately been lost in many church environments.  I just hope we can continue to the momentum in March as we talk about the virtue of hope.

Trunk or Treat

Trunk or Treat has become an annual event that our church puts on for the community.  This year we had Trunk or Treat in White Marsh and in Dundalk.  We estimate that roughly 2500 people went to the White Marsh location and 1000 went to the Dundalk location.  Chris Hope and I dressed up as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunn from Dumb & Dumber.  Our trunk was the shaggin wagon, and it was glorious.  I'm not sure how we didn't win first place, or any place, in the trunk contest.  Here are some pics:

"Chicks love it, it's the shaggin wagon"

"Cripes!"

This inflatable for adults was pretty sweet

 

We reenacted the following scene multiple times:

Slow Decision Making in Church

Below is a video from the Innovate Conference that suggests would some churches have to go through in order to make decisions.  The video is hilarious but it illustrates a very painful truth about the state of most churches in the U.S.  While slow decision making isn't leading to people dying inside churches that are on fire, there are people dying outside of churches who never knew Jesus.  In some cases the church may have never had a shot, in others we messed it up.  Thanks to Tim Stevens for the video.

24: Exile - Movie This Fall

I was randomly looking up a character from the show 24 and realized there's a movie coming out this fall!  I love the show 24.  Jennifer and I got hooked on it when we started watching the DVDs after season 5.  We watched the first 5 seasons in less than a month (that's 90 hours, insane).  24 is easily my favorite show on television.  After watching the DVDs of the first 5 seasons, I hated watching season 6 on TV week-to-week.

Apparently the movie is a prequel to Season 7, but stands alone from the show as well.  It's set to air on Fox on Sunday night, November 23.  You can find more information here and here.

NFL & a 24 movie on the horizon......I'm pumped.