gavoweb

spiritual | cultural | technological life

Gavin Richardson

my beautiful idol : reviewing

By

Mybeautifulidol
here are some excerpts from "my beautiful idol" by pete gall. i’m reviewing it, along with other bloggers, as part of the ooze’s select bloggers reading list/group. so far, when i’ve had a chance to sit and read i’ve rolled through pages. these are some spots that i marked for further thought & sharing.

.. if i do my job well [advertising agent], I’ll help derail the lives of kids who are no match for the power of my message and my thinly veiled invitation to foolish, sinful choices. Not everyone is offered such a clear-cut opportunity to choose the right path, and the clarity of it makes me think about the second half of my prayer that day on my way back to my dorm room after the accounting test – the part about "then you can have me." I know, deep down, that the truth of my success is that God let me walk with my idol until I could see it well enough to put it down and head the other direction.
…
.. I can see people watching TV at the corner bar noticing the news article about that one. They’d have to admit that for whatever else a person may say about the people of God, Christians do make a difference and do display acts of loving generosity. That’s a "brand" people would join, would want to be associated with, would use to tell themselves and others the story of who they are. That would be a need worth creating, worth pointing out, worth creating a hunger for.

so far when i sit down to read i’m rolling through pages. much like a donald miller or shane claiborne writing of life experiences, the deep meaning is more hidden into story. which i can respect, it reaches different people in different ways. i am quite over some of the guy girl relationship stuff. i think what i like most so far.. the chapters are short. i like that a lot.

virtual church planters : conversation of friends

By

Meeting_001had a random meet up with revmom & rabbit john in our ‘second life.‘ it was some really great conversation time. we are continuing these talks of doing a virtual church plant. i made a visit over to lifechurc.tv’s church plant in second life. even in cyberspace, it is a seeker sensitive looking space.

it was nice to pray for my friends and be prayed for. that was encouraging. so interesting is this connection.

Meeting_002
i zipped over to my basecamp the koinonia church. there i found some other folks checking out a brian mclaren video. but real world calls, i’m off to do those things. i only wish i could fly in first world, it would be sooo much cooler!

if you are there and want to catch up with me when i am actually on i am "gavin tellig."

new podcast : youth worker movement episode 4

By

Ywmlogo1

after a long hiatus of wondering. i’ve released episode four of the youthworker movement podcast. this was one that we cut back in november while mike and i were at nywc. this one covers some budget talk and other ideas.

i will be releasing some of the interview podcasts from that convention in the coming days. i will also be hanging out with some musicians for gma week next week. apparently the idea is to have some podcasts come from those hang-outs, so you want to check back into these things.

click here to subscribe via itunes or join into the youthworkermovement.org network.

mourning : loss in the methoblogosphere

By

my heart has dropped in sadness. cub, our only prolific blogging dog has passed on today. i feel like i’ve lost my own four legged family member. my heart goes out to the "thumb havers"  "alpha" and "the boy." cub, i’m sure you are in a great place, advantage, no more trips to that needle person. you are going to be missed.

memories : 10 years after two devastating tornados

By

today will be known more prominently for another tragedy. but i am strolling down memory lane of another tragedy of a different sort. today is the 10 year anniversary of downtown nashville tornado. the sister got me thinking.

the weeks surrounding that day are very surreal. i remember being woken up at 5 or 6am by my older sisters phone call. i was still at ua then, and apparently an f5 tornado touched down on the east side of tuscaloosa and went almost clear across the state. i had slept through it all. she was seeing the first light pictures of that devastation on the national news. eventually, a crew of friends came down to nashville and we did some relief work for the red cross that weekend. we managed to work small town area around hueytown. it was the first time i had seen total devastation like that. only till katrina have i seen it since then.

our group liked doing the work we organized to go to nashville for a habitat build the next weekend.

well, a tornado came through downtown nashville the next week. we headed up to nashville (with tornado storms all the way up). we didn’t really expect to have the habitat build like originally planned. we didn’t have a plan at all. what ended up happening is that we went to lowes bought ourselves some chainsaws, axes, mules and sledge hammers and spent the weekend in some backyards in east nashville. the trees were sooo big and heavy. after we put the last cut log onto the street corner i can only remember feeling like i couldn’t lift one more thing. i think i even made my brother drive us home.

i’ve often wondered where exactly we were that weekend. now that i know the city so much more. one thing i do know. i won’t forget those days anytime soon.