Monday Night Football is a blessing.

It has been incredibly cool seeing how Monday Night Football can do some much greatness in a guy's life. What do you mean? About a month or so ago, we (leadership) decided that we wanted to get all the men of the church connected to each other. So we figured the best way to do it is through something that speaks to men...(lightbulb) NFL Football. NFL is a big deal here. We have the Seahawks that play in Seattle, so it makes sense.

The idea is to gather all the guys by meeting at somebody's house each Monday night to watch football. There guys can talk, eat, cheer, and laugh around the game of football. For weeks, it grew into a success, then we starting thinking. Why not go a step further? Why not have a Bible study before we get started. With the incredible discovery of DVR (aka Tivo), we had the ability catch up with the the game when the study time is over. Tim (pastor) suggested going through "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge. So we began.

Over the course of 5 weeks now, I have seen a group of men develop into a Band of Brothers. In past two weeks, I have seen our men really open up, challenge one another, encourage each other, and realize that we are all in this together when it comes to being a man of Christ. I think the interesting thing now is that our discussions are getting longer, deeper, and more important to the point that we almost forget about the game. It is just amazing seeing all of the men grow. It is exciting to see male leadership in our church begin to develop. Who knew that MNF (Monday Night Football) could be such a tool.

-Cham

The area that I live in...

I bold/italicized the part that describe the culture I am in.

Article from christianpost.com:

The top ten most religious states in America are all located in the south or southern Midwest, according to a new Gallup report.All ten states are part of the so-called “Bible Belt,” or the area in the United States with a heavy socially conservative evangelical Protestant population. They are, starting with the most religious: Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Kentucky and Texas, which are tied.

The Gallup report ranked each state’s religiousness by asking respondents if religion is an important part of their daily life.

Overall, analysis shows that a solid majority of Americans said religion is important in their daily lives. A full 65 percent of Americans across the entire U.S. population gave this response.

On the other hand, about one in three American adults said religion is not important in their lives, while one percent either responded they don’t know or refused to answer.

Breaking down the data by states, 60 to 70 percent of the population in 23 states said religion is important.

Religion seems to be less important to those living in the New England area and the far West.

The top ten least religious states, starting from the least religious are: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Rhode Island, Nevada, and Connecticut.

The results are based on telephone interviews with 355,334 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted in 2008 as part of the Gallup Poll Daily tracking. The report is the second of a four-part series on the “State of the States.”

Commons Ladies Retreat

(Phone Pic from the retreat center)

Keep The Commons Ladies in your prayers this weekend. Yesterday, 20+ ladies headed for the mountains for an overnight retreat with speaking, worship, and "gal" time. The ladies will be suffering in a winter wonderland as you can see from the blackberry picture taken from one of them. This is an exciting time for The Commons because of all the new ladies joining in on the retreat as well as just 1st time visitors. Please be praying for the God will really impact this retreat with Himself, impact the ladies' lives, and to provide safe travels home tonight. Every year this event brings back some awesome "God stories". So we are definitely excited.

-cham