LOST Thoughts

The “Oceanic Six”? Is Hurley gonna tell what? Who’s the dude that dropped out of the copter? Is Charlie dead or not? Holy smokes, it has pulled me in for another season. Those freakin’ writers better get over it…and head back to work…I gotta see the entire 13 episodes…not just 8!!!

New EMail Newsletter Masthead

I’ve been updating Compass Point’s email newsletter layout all day.  I need to post the masthead image in order to use it through Constant Contact.  Sorry for adding such trivial stuff to my blog…but it serves a big purpose.

Thank You

Sometime today my blog will pass the 50,000 hits milestone. For other bloggers that number is a “drop in the bucket”…but for me it is pretty humbling. When I started blogging back in 2004 it was solely as an online journal…I never expected people to actually read it. I guess it was the middle of 2005 that I began to realize that folks on the web were dropping by to take a look,,,though only a few at a time.  In 2006 I moved over to Typepad and…thanks to the encouragement of guys like Gary Lamb, Travis Johnson and Dave Anderson…got into blogging for church planters/leaders more seriously.  It was last June after the “man church” thing exploded in the media that I added a SiteMeter counter (set at zero) to keep track of the hits from then on (I have no clue how many people dropped by before then).  Now…after less than a year…that little counter tells me we’re almost at 50,000 hits (not to mention over 100 subscribers).

As I mentioned above that is pretty humbling for me.  There have been times I have ranted here…told jokes here…presented ideas out of the norm here…been off base here…and generally just shared about my life here.  Through this blog I have gained some incredible friendships…some I’ve actually met in person…others just through email half a world away.   However, I have never ceased to be amazed by how God continues to use the folks that stop by here to speak into my life.  It is with a heartfelt “thank you” for your continued participation and readership of ChrisElrod.com that I move forward into the blogging future.  You guys rock…thanks for reading!!!

Justin Timberlake Fans Need Not Apply

So the smack talk has become fairly serious in the blogosphere concerning the upcoming “Evolve Conference” and the “Guitar Hero Contest“.  I really don’t sweat any of the guys…they are all pretty much going to have their faces melted off by “Slash” Elrod.  However, I think it is funny that such a girlie-man as Gary Lamb is talking trash.  With a blog post like this you can’t really expect people to take your taunting all that serious concerning your “Guitar Hero” skills.  Word has it that Gary has been brushing up on his ‘N Sync guitar licks!!!  

Throwing Down The Guitar Hero Gauntlet

On Saturday my mentor and friend Shawn Lovejoy called me about the upcoming Evolve Conference for church planters and leaders. Not only will this be one of the best conferences of the year…but apparently a few of us bloggers have been asked to participate in a “Guitar Hero Contest” during the conference. Let me just say this…I am still learning my way around this thing called church planting….however, I have been playing guitar since the age of 14. I grew up copping licks by the masters (Page, Clapton, Van Halen, Rhoads, Slash, etc.). I am coming to Atlanta next month armed with my inner-Ace Frehley…I will be blowing guys off the stage!!! I’m not really sure at this point who all is in the contest…but it really doesn’t matter…none of them stand a chance.

First I’ll Evolve, Then I’ll Unleash And Then I’ll Go Exponential

If you are a church planter, church leader…or thinking about being one…I cannot stress enough the need to go to the “Evolve Conference” (February 18-19) by Mountain Lake Church in Atlanta (Cumming), Georgia, the “Unleash Conference” (March 13) by Newspring Church in Anderson, South Carolina and the “Exponential Conference” (April 21-24) in Orlando. I’ll be taking the entire Compass Point staff to “Evolve” and several young leaders-in-training to “Unleash”. Since “Exponential” is in our backyard…we’ll be taking a bunch of people from our church (lay leaders, staff, Elders, etc.) back and forth each day. All of these conferences are very affordable, have some of the best church plant pastors lined up to speak and offer great opportunities to network with some of today’s top church leaders. If you are planning to go to these conferences…drop me an email or put a comment on this post so we can make plans to hook up. Again…get these on your calendar and get registered…QUICK…they are filling up fast!!!

The Experiment Seems To Have Gone Well

My experiment with opening up the comments on this post seems to have gone well. People responded with grace and dignity…not much flaming or name calling going on. I think that the “conversation” was eye-opening and civil…I enjoyed the experience and had to do very little moderating. I’ll have to open up comments some more in the future.

By the way…part of the experiment was to take a “hot button” topic…leave my take on it slightly vague…and watch the resulting comments. Yeah, I was mad as hell at her comments…but I did not feel that harsher punishment was needed. I also was taking a side-shot at the civil rights opportunists and Muslim leaders for their over-reactions to the afore-mentioned incidents.

I was probably more bothered by the fact that ESPN and the on-air personality went to great lengths to apologize to Notre Dame…but never really addressed Christians in the “official” statement. Who can blame them though?  The church has spent more time trying to make people feel better about their self-esteem with seeker-sensitive, consumer-driven churches…and liberal, “everyone is going to Heaven no matter what they believe” Emergent philosophy…to the point that no one is afraid of the wrath of God anymore. We’ve spent way too much time arguing the all-important (I can’t say that with a straight face) five points of Calvinism or bashing each other over the head concerning Purpose-Driven drivel that God and Jesus have become a punchline in a drunken keynote speech to the world at large.

Just something to chew on. Comments still open…

Yeah, I Opened Up Comments

Yeah the rumors are true…I opened up comments on my previous post (against my better judgement).  This is a trial basis as I’m not really into the whole “let’s debate stuff through the comments section” thing.  However, I thought my opinion warranted some feedback…and occasional rebuke.  Keep it clean…play nice…I don’t have the time to moderate. 

How Much More Do We Take?

How is it that when you name a teddy bear Mohammed you get thrown in jail, expelled from the country and have an angry mob calling for your execution - yet when you say something offensive about Jesus you get a slap on the wrist?

How is it that when you call a girl’s basketball team “nappy headed hoes” you lose your job - yet when you say “F*** Jesus” you get a week off?

It seems to me that Christians are looked at as wimps and non-entities these days.  We allow offensive things to be said about our Lord and Savior all in the name of unity, harmony and love.  What a crock of crap!!!

How much more do we take before we stop rolling over playing dead?  Comments are open on this one!!!

Apparently I’m Heading To Africa

I got an email this morning from a local newspaper reporter asking me about my upcoming mission trip to Uganda.  It was news to me…so I Googled myself and it’s seems that Chris Elrod is indeed heading to Africa.  Go here and scroll down the page to see what I’m talking about.  Apparently, I’m also a top real estate agent in Nashville…and gay. 

Seriously, a bunch of Christian bloggers are heading to Africa with the fine folks from Compassion International for ministry and to report what they experience on their blogs.  The Chris Elrod referred to in the blog post is actually Randy Elrod’s wife. Randy and Chris use to be at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks in Largo back during my comedy days.  The church brought me into their Smiley’s Coffeehouse one night for a concert.  Half the church showed up thinking that their Music Minister’s wife was launching a stand-up comedy career. 

One of my favorite people and bloggers…Carlos Whitaker…will also make the trip.  Please remember them in prayer…as well as the people they will encounter.  I can’t wait to read what they write once the trip is done!!!

Just a side note to the other Chris Elrod - If you ever want to acquire ChrisElrod.com…I’ll be more than happy to trade you for it.  Let’s see…how about my domain name for an even trade on this house you are selling in Nashville.  That seems fair to me.