belly up tavern

The Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach is a legend in San Diego for booking really good musicians. Yet in all the years we've lived here, I've never ventured inside. In fact, I don't recall ever going to anything in Solana Beach. Last night, my buddy -- Michael Tiernan -- was the opening act for Crash Carter. So ... with the girls in Georgia, I ventured out and it was a blast. The Belly Up is nicely laid out and staged. It's easily accessible from I-5. In fact, it would make a great spot for a church plant!

cox troubles

So I have this nice bundle package with Cox Communications. They provide my high speed internet, digital cable, and digital phones. Which is really great ... until the system goes down and they all go down together. Like they did this morning. Alas, I still have the free WiFi at Twiggs -- which uses SBC dsl instead of Cox.

san diego's music pool is deep

One of the things I've been impressed with as I scout local coffee shops for musicians is the level of talent that exists in San Diego. Incredible talent, much of it you can listen to for free! (Good for us, not so good for them).

A few examples should suffice ...

Michael Tiernan
Jason Turtle
Will Edwards
Annie Bethancourt
Sam Bybee
Tim Mudd (does an awesome live version of "Watchtower")

Some cool places to listen ...

Cosmos on La Mesa Blvd
Twiggs on Park Blvd
Lestats on Adams Ave
Claire de Lune on University

hope lost a tooth

Our youngest daughter lost her first tooth a few days ago while vacationing in Georgia. It had been wiggly (technical term for you non-technical people) for several days and finally decided to disengage in Georgia. For several days before leaving California, she would sleep with her tooth fairy pillow anticipating the big moment.

I hear from a good source they have tooth fairies in Georgia, albeit with a bit of twang and drawl.

She's pictured here riding the tram over the San Diego Zoo ... teeth intact.

a little flash

Starting a few years ago, I began putting together enhanced CD's using Flash. A few bluegrass bands and an occasional church used them ... and now I've put one together for LifePoint. Be kind -- it's a work in progress.

Click here. Please note: it's a BIG file (~ 5MB). There is sound ... so crank up the speakers. My apologies to the dial-up people.

The file will load in your browser. Ignore the "exit" button -- that's only for the self-executing file.

church planting in the internet age

One of the pleasant surprises about planting a new church has been the effectiveness of making contacts online. LifePoint has had over 80 people come to one of our gatherings; nearly half of them have been the result of an online contact. The primary source has been craigslist.org ... a treasure of a website. Besides generating great leads, I've used craigslist to give away a riding lawn mower ...

There have been other effective sites as well, including MySpace and the San Diego Reader online.

The people who troll many of these sites are the very types of people we are trying to reach. It's a natural fit.

great preview service

LifePoint had her first initial preview service last Sunday (July 17) and we had 47 people on hand. Not bad, considering we started on March 1 with 7 adults! We had original art on display, two worship leaders, a few videos and multimedia thingies, and I shared a few reasons why San Diego needs LifePoint. Many thanks to Lemon Grove Christian Church for allowing us the use of their chapel. It was a fun night and the entire environment just felt good.

We're also getting closer to announcing our grand opening location!

i have too many interactive rest stops

Ok, so I've been blogging on myspace as well as on LifePoint's website. But ... I figured everyone else has a hosted blog, why not me? It's just another roadside amusement on the information superhighway. Two of my friends and a few strangers may happen along.