We had another great LifePoint Cafe last night with two local artists -- Michael Tiernan and Nathan Welden. One of the key values at LifePoint is that we want to actively support the local arts scene. We believe God is a creative God and that the church should look for ways of encouraging the arts.For too long, there has been an antagonistic relationship between the "church" and the arts. There was a sense that art was too emotional or expressive or even human. Rather than embracing the arts as a way of communicating truth, the church resisted the arts. In some cases, churches even eliminated the arts altogether. At LifePoint, we want to build a bridge between our community of faith and the arts community.Now ... on to local music. One of my favorite things to do is hit the open mic circuit. Why? Because it's a garden-style variety of…

This is a new design I came up with late Saturday night. I thought about incorporating several Elvis impersonators and perhaps Don King ... but this is what I settled on. I used a font called "Hammer Keys" to produce the double effect. "Elvis" was filtered in Adobe Photoshop after a bit of cropping and erasing work. You can actually buy this design on a t-shirt. Click here to find out how.

We spent this afternoon shopping for new mattresses for Hannah and Hope. We finally settled on mattress sets from Sleep Train in La Mesa. The girls enjoyed shopping for mattresses since they were allowed to hop on and off different beds. The bed frame that Hannah uses is actually the one I grew up on. When I was in early elementary school, I shared a bed with two of my older brothers. With five boys and two parents and only three bedrooms, there was more than a fighting chance that somebody would be sharing a bed. I can speak from personal experience that this bed frame is 100 percent sturdy.

I've been kicking around a few ideas about what should a LifePoint Christ-follower look like. In other words, after a person has been a part of our spiritual community for a while ... how would they be different? What would they value? Those are the sort of questions I've been kicking around (along with ... how do you get there!).One thought that has kept creeping up is this: practicing our ABC's. I first heard a pastor from Dallas speak about this regarding his church. He said it was their goal to have every member practice their ABC's.A stands for "Attend worship." I would hope that anyone who considers LifePoint to be their spiritual home would regularly attend our worship gatherings. It's in worship where we encounter God as a community, tell our stories, and reenergize. From the beginning of the Christian movement, Christ-followers have met for worship on a regular…

This will probably show up on a t-shirt soon.