Great ad for a terrible product. Courtesy Kelsey Maskell.
Last week we had our monthly "all staff" at Grace Center. This is a time for all of our staff to meet and talk about events that are coming up. It's a great opportunity for us all to be together and get on the same page.
Having just finished our weekend with Marc Dupont and Laura Woodley Osman, we were sharing our experiences, testimonies, etc with each other. A.J. talked about a brilliant idea that Marc had shared with her. Just as she finished talking, my iPhone which was on the table in front me, let out a little 8-bit blurp - kind of like a computer generated trumpet sound. This was surprising because I always set my phone on silent when I go to meetings. What followed, however, was something that took us all by surprise. A male voice announced to the room (via my iPhone):
“It is God’s plan to bring transformation to your city.”
We were all shocked! I picked up my phone - not only was it on silent but I had also set my ringer on low. Even though the sound clearly emitted from my iPhone, the screen didn't illuminate and there was no notification on the lock screen. Checking notification center didn't show any missed notifications and a quick double click of my home button didn't reveal any unusual apps in use. We were shocked. Had this been anyone else's iPhone I would've assumed it was a buffering YouTube video that had just caught up or perhaps a Bible app - but it was my phone and I knew what apps I had opened and how to check for notifications. As a church we have received many prophetic words over the years, but this was one of the most dramatic (and unusual) ways of getting revelation that I've ever witnessed.
Pastor Jeff did an awesome job setting this event in context at Grace Center this morning. Once the video is up online, we'll link to it.
Update: Link to Sunday morning service is here.
So I'm not sure how best to describe this, but at Grace Center tonight we're doing a service at 7pm. Marc Dupont and Laura Woodley Osman have been with us since Friday and last night at emanate, we decided to do another service with them. If you are able to come join us, please do - it's open to everyone. If you can't physically make it you can watch online.
We just posted our eleventh episode of Keeping up with the Joneses yesterday morning. We have tremendous fun recording it each week and love the kind feedback we receive, especially as it's something new we're trying and have no experience in making podcasts. We were excited to find ourselves on the iTunes New & Noteworthy list within the first few weeks of launching and then staggered to find we had 1,000 subscribers to the podcast in only 10 weeks. We're having fun playing with ideas about how to make the podcast even more betterer but for now, there's one small request we're asking those of you subscribed via iTunes to do: UNSUBSCRIBE.
That's right, we'd love you to unsubscribe from Keeping Up with The Joneses and then immediately RE-SUBSCRIBE. (If you subscribed to our podcast after July 21st, 2014 you don't need to go through this palaver).
Why the unsubscribe / re-subscribe shuffle? Well remember the whole we "have no experience in making podcasts" line from earlier? File it under that (the short answer). The longer answer is the combination of software and web services we use to host and syndicate the show has been upgraded and with it the need for us to ask listeners to refresh their subscription. We wish there was a more elegant way to achieve this goal, but unfortunately this is the cost of our inexperience!
If you already know how to do that, go forth and unsubscribe and re-subscribe, no need to read on. If you need help, here's how to do it:
Step 1: Launch iTunes and go to your podcasts.
Step 2: If you are using a Mac, hold down the CONTROL key on your keyboard and click (on a PC, right click) on "Keeping Up with The Joneses" in the left hand column to bring up the menu pictured above. Then click on Unsubscribe Podcast.
Step 3: Hold down CONTROL on your keyboard and click once again on "Keeping Up with The Joneses" (or if you are on a PC right click). This time click on Delete.
Step 4: You may be asked if you are sure you want to delete the podcast. Confirm you do, by clicking on the Delete button.
Step 5: You will be asked if you want to delete the old podcast episodes or not. It's entirely up to you, but if you move the files to the trash, you can always re-download the episodes after you subscribe in the next step.
Step 6: To resubscribe to the new feed in iTunes, click on the image above (or click here) and once the above page has loaded in iTunes, click the Subscribe button under the Keeping Up with The Joneses artwork.
Step 7: If iTunes asks you to confirm your subscription, click the Subscribe button and you're done!
Our sincere apologies for the hassle. Thanks for being on this journey with us. If you need help, contact us.
We've linked to Cultivate Boldness before, but it's worth a re-link in light of their most recent adventures. Five girls (all SOSL graduates incidentally) took vacation to go to NYC to spread the love of Jesus and His kingdom through encouraging words, prophetic ministry, healing and random acts of kindness. Just read through their blog and we know you'll be encouraged. Amazing.
File this under next level want.
“At catering on Saturday after I spoke, I asked my good friend Darren (who works for Jesus Culture) if he thought I had said anything too controversial in my talk, to which he replied, ‘Um, no, not at all. But there’s some controversy on our Jesus Culture Facebook page about you throwing out satanic hand gestures.’”
Brilliant article by Christa.
New episode of Keeping Up With the Joneses out today! This was supposed to be part 2 of last week's podcast (which it is) but it didn't make sense to call this America Part II given we don't talk much about America in this episode. Rest assured we finish the story of how we ended up moving here. Additionally Alyn gets everything wrong and A.J. inadvertently offends all selfie takers.
At my 40th, AJ arranged a lip-sync battle between a bunch of very talented friends. Not all of them got recorded (some were even filmed in - shock - portrait mode!) but those that were have been compiled into the video below. My apologies to those who didn't make it into the video, you were just as good and just as hilarious but your footage was missing.
“I would really encourage you to do [this] school. This is something I think that God is doing in apostolic centers; developing heart schools where we are actually sending out, training, equipping and deploying people. I think the idea of people being deployed from their home church and trained in the place they grow up is truly powerful.”
We're very proud of our School of Supernatural Life. The school is designed to bring rich transformation to the lives of our students and is now in its fourth year. It runs on Mondays and Tuesdays from September through April and July 15th is the last day to apply for entrance to this year's school. We'd love you to come and experience the Father's love and His wonderful presence - we know you'll have an amazing time. Check the video below to get more of a feel and then apply over here.
